Deaf man: medium-light skin tone Emoji

People

A man with a medium-light skin tone gesturing toward his ear with a single finger, signifying that he is deaf or hard of hearing. The gesture mimics the physical motion of pointing to the ear to indicate hearing status or the need for sign language communication.

Usage Context

This emoji serves as a clear way to identify as deaf or to signal that someone is unable to hear. It is frequently used in professional and social settings to request accessibility accommodations or to explain why a person may not be responding to audio cues. It is often used alongside 🤟 to represent the deaf community or to discuss sign language.

History

Added in 2019 as part of Unicode 12.0, this emoji was part of a major push by the Unicode Consortium to improve accessibility representation. It reflects the growing awareness of inclusive digital communication, building upon earlier, more generic accessibility icons that lacked human representation.

Details

Glyph
🧏🏼‍♂
Unicode
U+1F9CF U+1F3FC U+200D U+2642
Shortcode
:emoji_u1f9cf_1f3fc_200d_2642:
HTML Entity
����‍♂

Specifications

Vendor Microsoft
Category People
Subcategory person-gesture
Unicode Version 6.0
Emoji Version 1.0
License MIT
Tags
accessibilitydeafeargesturehearmansign languagehard of hearinghearing losscommunicationinclusive

Microsoft Fluent License

Emoji graphics by Microsoft. © Microsoft Corporation. Licensed under MIT. Excludes assets such as Clippy, flags, and trademarks.

Microsoft Fluent Emoji assets are licensed under the MIT License. Certain assets—such as Clippy, country flags, and Microsoft product/brand trademarks—are excluded from this license and may not be used without separate permission.