diff --git a/src/pymovements/gaze/io.py b/src/pymovements/gaze/io.py
index 68fb6d4ec..8c4a753b8 100644
--- a/src/pymovements/gaze/io.py
+++ b/src/pymovements/gaze/io.py
@@ -279,6 +279,7 @@ def from_asc(
         trial_columns: str | list[str] | None = None,
         add_columns: dict[str, str] | None = None,
         column_schema_overrides: dict[str, Any] | None = None,
+        encoding: str = 'ascii',
 ) -> GazeDataFrame:
     """Initialize a :py:class:`pymovements.gaze.GazeDataFrame`.
 
@@ -307,6 +308,8 @@ def from_asc(
     column_schema_overrides: dict[str, Any] | None
         Dictionary containing types for columns.
         (default: None)
+    encoding: str
+        Text encoding of the file. (default: 'ascii')
 
     Returns
     -------
@@ -351,7 +354,11 @@ def from_asc(
 
     # Read data.
     gaze_data, metadata = parse_eyelink(
-        file, patterns=patterns, schema=schema, metadata_patterns=metadata_patterns,
+        file,
+        patterns=patterns,
+        schema=schema,
+        metadata_patterns=metadata_patterns,
+        encoding=encoding,
     )
 
     if add_columns is not None:
diff --git a/src/pymovements/utils/parsing.py b/src/pymovements/utils/parsing.py
index e13160777..de71ce8a2 100755
--- a/src/pymovements/utils/parsing.py
+++ b/src/pymovements/utils/parsing.py
@@ -180,6 +180,7 @@ def parse_eyelink(
         patterns: list[dict[str, Any] | str] | None = None,
         schema: dict[str, Any] | None = None,
         metadata_patterns: list[dict[str, Any] | str] | None = None,
+        encoding: str = 'ascii',
 ) -> tuple[pl.DataFrame, dict[str, Any]]:
     """Process EyeLink asc file.
 
@@ -193,6 +194,8 @@ def parse_eyelink(
         Dictionary to optionally specify types of columns parsed by patterns. (default: None)
     metadata_patterns: list[dict[str, Any] | str] | None
         list of patterns to match for additional metadata. (default: None)
+    encoding: str
+        Text encoding of the file. (default: 'ascii')
 
     Returns
     -------
@@ -228,7 +231,7 @@ def parse_eyelink(
         **additional,
     }
 
-    with open(filepath, encoding='ascii') as asc_file:
+    with open(filepath, encoding=encoding) as asc_file:
         lines = asc_file.readlines()
 
     # will return an empty string if the key does not exist
diff --git a/tests/unit/utils/parsing_test.py b/tests/unit/utils/parsing_test.py
index cfd7adff5..6795014e5 100644
--- a/tests/unit/utils/parsing_test.py
+++ b/tests/unit/utils/parsing_test.py
@@ -889,3 +889,33 @@ def test_parse_eyelink_mount_config(tmp_path, metadata, expected_mount_config):
     _, parsed_metadata = pm.utils.parsing.parse_eyelink(filepath)
 
     assert parsed_metadata['mount_configuration'] == expected_mount_config
+
+
+@pytest.mark.parametrize(
+    ('bytestring', 'encoding', 'expected_text'),
+    [
+        pytest.param(
+            b'MSG	2154555 H\xe4user\n',
+            'latin1',
+            'Häuser',
+            id='latin1',
+        ),
+        pytest.param(
+            b'MSG	2154555 H\xc3\xa4user\n',
+            'utf-8',
+            'Häuser',
+            id='utf-8',
+        ),
+    ],
+)
+def test_parse_eyelink_encoding(tmp_path, bytestring, encoding, expected_text):
+    filepath = tmp_path / 'sub.asc'
+    filepath.write_bytes(bytestring)
+
+    _, parsed_metadata = pm.utils.parsing.parse_eyelink(
+        filepath,
+        metadata_patterns=[r'(?P<text>.+)'],
+        encoding=encoding,
+    )
+
+    assert parsed_metadata['text'] == expected_text