I don't think it's people's sensitivities, since you explicitly stated that you'd have to be deaf or stupid to use subtitles on an English speaking program :p

Well that is honestly what I believe. If I can process the slack jawed and the New York street dialects and slang as an English person, then I really can't understand how an American can struggle with our equivalents.

You'd have to have pretty bad hearing or be kinda slow not to be able to process what they are saying.

Again, just because YOU can do it, doesn't mean everyone, or even most can.

Oh I get that but that still doesn't mean I can fathom it. I mean I'd get it if they were like...Welsh, hell I can barely understand a word my grandparents said, but subtle dialects or specific slang, to me, really don't seem like something worth pulling the subtitles up for.

Where in Wales are your grandparents from?

Right on the cusp between England and Wales in Hereford.

I don't have trouble with British accents in general, or many others. Maybe it's because I grew up listening to a lot of British music from the 60-80s, and spent a lot of time listening to their lyrics and watching interviews. For example, I always read about how Mick Ronson (guitarist in the 70s) from Hull was very hard for people to understand. Every interview or recording I've heard of him speaking hasn't been hard for me to understand at all. So I think part of it is familarizing yourself with people's dialect and colloquialisms. If you rarely hear British people speak then it's not surprising that it could give you trouble (depending on the thickness of the accent). Once you are used to hearing it you probably won't have as much trouble. Now if they just have a problem speaking properly that's a whole different issue entirely. There are plenty of fellow Americans who I struggled to understand because they slurred when speaking, or mumbled, or some other issue.