Deaf early signers who are skilled readers exhibit efficient eye-movements (increased skipping, shorter fixations), and have stronger effects of visual and contextual information on initial word reading than their hearing peers. However, it is unclear whether these differences stem from effects of deafness, early sign language experience, or both. We compare length, frequency, and predictability effects on skipping rates and fixation durations on target words embedded in 200 sentences for 41 deaf early signers, 101 hearing non-signers, and (ongoing) 16 hearing native signers. Hearing signers patterned more like deaf readers than hearing non-signers with increased length and predictability effects, but only deaf readers skipped more words and had shorter gaze durations overall. Frequency effects were similar across groups. These findings suggest that early access to a sign language changes the use of visual and contextual information during text processing but deafness is the primary source of reading efficiency, highlighting distinct effects of language experience and sensory input on reading.