A gender-neutral deaf person, shown signing near the ear, added in 2019 following direct advocacy from Deaf community groups and Apple's accessibility team who co-proposed it to Unicode. It's used to represent deafness/Deaf culture and in awareness campaigns, not as a casual gesture emoji. Trivia: this was part of a broader 2019 'disability-inclusive' emoji package (alongside guide dogs, wheelchairs, and prosthetic limbs) that marked one of Unicode's most significant accessibility-driven expansions.
Keywords: accessibility, deaf, ear, gesture, hear, person