Accounts of completed and ongoing research conducted from 1964 to 1968 are presented on the subject of accelerated speech as a substitute for the written word. Included are a review of the research on intelligibility and comprehension of accelerated speech, some methods for controlling the word rate of recorded speech, and a comparison of electromechanical and dichotic speech compression. Further discussions presented are the following: reaction time as an indicator of the intelligibility of time compressed words; the comprehension of compressed speech; listening comprehension as a function of intelligibility and word rate; a survey of the acceptability of rapid speech; preference of listening rate of college students of moderately difficult literary material; the influence of age, grade, and intelligence on comprehension of compressed speech; the rate of oral reading; the Louisville conference on time compressed speech; and summaries of other experiments. (JM)