We report new developments in the TAS: the Test of Adult Speechreading, a test designed to be appropriate to the needs of both deaf and hearing users. Profoundly prelingually deaf people outperform hearing users on this test. Subtests of TAS showed different patterns of inter-correlation in deaf and hearing people, suggesting different underlying factors accounting for individual variability in speechreading which depended on hearing status. Although reading was poorer in deaf than hearing groups, it correlated with phonological awareness and with TAS scores. Phonological awareness may have performed a mediating role in the relationship between reading and silent speechreading in deaf participants. There was no relationship between reading and TAS in the hearing users.