Assistive Listening Knowledge Base
  • European Standard (telecommunications series)

ETSI EN 301 462 V1.1.1: Human Factors (HF); Symbols to identify telecommunications facilities for deaf and hard of hearing people

From https://assistivelisteningknowledgebase.org/evidence/etsi-2000-en-301-462/ · record checked 9 October 2026

  • ETSI Technical Committee Human Factors (HF)
  • European Telecommunications Standards Institute

Standards body (ETSI, the European telecommunications standards organisation, whose members include manufacturers)

Summary

The European standard symbols for facilities for deaf and hard of hearing people, among them a general symbol (an ear crossed by a diagonal bar) and a symbol for inductive coupling to hearing aids (the same ear with a T).

Key findings

  • Defines Graphical Symbol No. 1 for general facilities for deaf and hard of hearing people: a stylised ear crossed by a diagonal bar. It says such a general symbol can be the base of a set of symbols for specific facilities, made by adding graphic elements.
  • Defines Graphical Symbol No. 10 for inductive coupling: the same ear and bar with a letter T at the lower right, to show that a hearing aid or other device can be inductively coupled to a telecommunication terminal. It notes that hearing aids that switch to a pick-up coil often use the letter T for that setting, citing IEC 60118-11.
  • Also defines symbols for telephone amplification, electrical coupling, text telephones and videotelephones.
  • Applies to telecommunication equipment and services, to public information signs and telecommunication directories that identify such facilities, and to packaging and product documentation. It encourages use of the symbols, saying this would be "likely to increase the usage of the facilities provided".
  • States that the symbols were designed and tested to be acceptable to as many deaf and hard of hearing people as possible; the testing is reported in ETSI TR 101 767, a separate record.

Limits

Written for telecommunication facilities such as public telephones, not for room hearing loops or other venue systems, although its scope takes in public information signs. Adopted on 11 February 2000; ETSI lists no later version. It predates Bluetooth broadcast audio. The symbols are drawings; their description here comes from viewing them.

Read the original

www.etsi.org/deliver/etsi_en/301400_301499/301462/01.01.01_60/en_301462v010101p.pdf

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Cited in

Cite this source

ETSI Technical Committee Human Factors (HF). ETSI EN 301 462 V1.1.1: Human Factors (HF); Symbols to identify telecommunications facilities for deaf and hard of hearing people. European Telecommunications Standards Institute. March 2000. https://www.etsi.org/deliver/etsi_en/301400_301499/301462/01.01.01_60/en_301462v010101p.pdf (accessed 9 October 2026).

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