Whenever we talk about audiovisual accessibility for people with hearing impairments, most people think of subtitling for the deaf and hard of hearing as the most extended and preferred technique. But then, and taking into account the heterogeneous nature of the d/Deaf community and the generalised distribution of a single SDH version, who are we really subtitling for: the Deaf? The Hard of Hearing?
Different authors (Jensema, 1998, 1996, 2000; Kirkland, 1999; Neves, 2005; Cambra, 2008; Burnham, 2008) and research projects (DTV4All – D’Artagnan, Subsordig) have already shed light on viewer preferences, on current SDH practices and on reception patterns. Furthermore, in many cases they have also revealed that subjective evaluations and test contributions are frequently distorted by habit, laboratory conditions and users’ reading and viewing comprehension skills.
With the adoption of eye-tracking technology in combination with research methodologies already in use in the field of cognitive psychology, we have tried to analyse reading patterns and general comprehension with different users: a group of hearers, deafened hearers, oral deaf, and signing deaf. The study of different variables, such as: gaze plots, elapsed time to first fixation, fixation count, mean fixation time on subtitle / image, etc. has provided significant information about the actual reading patterns and skills of individuals, making it possible to revisit already existing data and research outcomes.
This paper presents some of the data gathered by this study and focuses on the relevance of the combined application of eye-tracking research and traditional comprehension tests for the correct evolution of SDH. 

References
Burnham et al. (2008), ‘Parameters in Television Captioning for Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Adults: Effects of Caption Rate Versus Text Reduction on Comprehension’, Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education 13(3): 391-404.
Cambra, C. et al. (2008), ‘Función de la subtitulación y la interpretación de la imagen en la comprensión de los mensajes televisivos: la comprensión de una serie por parte de los adolescentes sordos’, Cultura y educación 20(1): 81-93.
Cambra, C. et al. (2008), ‘Comprehension of Television Messages by Deaf Students at Various Stages of Education’, American Annals of the Deaf 153 (5): 425–434.
Jensema, C. (1998), ‘Viewer reaction to Different Television Captioning Speeds’, American Annals of the Deaf 143 (4): 318-324.
Jensema, C. et al. (1996) ‘Closed-Caption Television Presentation Speed and Vocabulary', American Annals of the Deaf 141(4): 284-292.
Jensema, C. et al. (2000), ‘Eye Movement Patterns of Captioned Television Viewers’, American Annals of the Deaf 145 (3): 275-285.
Kirkland, E. (1999) ‘Evaluating of Captioning Features to Inform Development of Digital Television Captioning Facilities', American Annals of the Deaf 144 (3): 250-260.
Neves, J. (2005) Audiovisual Translation: Subtitling for the Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing, Unpublished PhD, London: University of Surrey-Roehampton.

Verónica ARNÁIZ holds a BA in Translation and Interpreting from Universidad de Valladolid (UVA) (Spain) and two MAs, one in Specialised Translation from UVA, and one in Audiovisual Translation from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) (Spain). She is a professional translator/subtitler and teaches Subtitling and SDH in the MA in “Professional and Institutional Translation” at the UVA, and in the MA Programme on AVT at the UAB. She is a member of the research group Transmedia Catalonia (Audiovisual Translation and Accessibility in the Media, UAB), collaborates in BITRA (Spanish government-funded project for an international and interactive database of publications on T&I, Universidad de Alicante) and is co-project manager of D’Artagnan, the subtitling part of the EU-funded project DTV4ALL led by Pilar Orero (UAB). She has presented a number of papers on AVT and SDH at “Languages and the Media 08” (Berlin, 2008), “La traduction audiovisuelle: Approches multidisciplinaires” (Montpellier, 2008)“, the 2nd International Conference: Media for All” (Leiria, Portugal, 2007), “Euroconferences” (Copenhagen, 2006; Vienna, 2007), “Amadis” (Granada, 2007 and 2008).