Text telephone symbol

A telephone handset above a row of keys, marking a textphone.

Also known as: TTY symbol, TDD symbol, Textphone symbol, Minicom symbol

AccessibilityEveryday & digitalStandard profile

Meanings

A handset above a keyboard marks a text telephone — a device that carries typed conversation over a phone line. It is the older of the deaf telephony marks, and much of what it once signposted has moved to relay services and messaging.

Officially standardisedVerified fact
Indicates that a text telephone is available, allowing a typed conversation to be carried over a telephone line.
Contexts: Public information
Common modern usageVerified fact
Also marks a relay service, in which an operator or automated service converts between typed text and speech so that a text user and a voice user can hold one conversation.
Contexts: Public information
Common modern usageCommon usage
Marks a declining technology: the role it signposts has largely shifted to internet relay, video relay and ordinary messaging, so the symbol is now met more often on older signage than on new.
Widespread from the 1970s; declining from the 2010s · Contexts: Public information

Visual description

A telephone handset shown in profile above a rectangular block ruled into small squares suggesting a keyboard.

Symmetry: none
Orientation: upright

Confidence

IdentityHigh confidence: High confidence because the identity is defined by a current official standard.
Historical originModerate confidence: Moderate confidence because the historical origin is documented in encyclopedic references, but the regional or cultural match to this specific claim is not precise.
Current useHigh confidence: High confidence because the current use is defined by a current official standard.
Visual matchHigh confidence: High confidence because the visual match is defined by a current official standard.

Sources

Telecommunications device for the deaf
Wikipedia · retrieved 2026-07-31
Tertiary reference. Used for widely-agreed identity, origin summary and adoption context, not for contested detail or exact dates.
Disability Access Symbols
Graphic Artists Guild · retrieved 2026-07-31
The Guild is the issuing body for this set and defines each symbol, so it is authoritative for what these marks mean and how they are drawn. It is not a standards organisation: the set is a voluntary design resource with no legal force, and displaying a symbol from it is not evidence that any legal accessibility obligation has been met.

Last reviewed 2026-07-31

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Accessibility and assistive-provision symbols

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Meanings

Officially standardisedVerified fact

Indicates that a text telephone is available, allowing a typed conversation to be carried over a telephone line.

Contexts: Public information

Common modern usageVerified fact

Also marks a relay service, in which an operator or automated service converts between typed text and speech so that a text user and a voice user can hold one conversation.

Contexts: Public information

Common modern usageCommon usage

Marks a declining technology: the role it signposts has largely shifted to internet relay, video relay and ordinary messaging, so the symbol is now met more often on older signage than on new.

Widespread from the 1970s; declining from the 2010s · Contexts: Public information

Confidence

IdentityHigh confidence: High confidence because the identity is defined by a current official standard.
Historical originModerate confidence: Moderate confidence because the historical origin is documented in encyclopedic references, but the regional or cultural match to this specific claim is not precise.
Current useHigh confidence: High confidence because the current use is defined by a current official standard.
Visual matchHigh confidence: High confidence because the visual match is defined by a current official standard.

Sources

Telecommunications device for the deaf
Wikipedia · retrieved 2026-07-31
Tertiary reference. Used for widely-agreed identity, origin summary and adoption context, not for contested detail or exact dates.
Disability Access Symbols
Graphic Artists Guild · retrieved 2026-07-31
The Guild is the issuing body for this set and defines each symbol, so it is authoritative for what these marks mean and how they are drawn. It is not a standards organisation: the set is a voluntary design resource with no legal force, and displaying a symbol from it is not evidence that any legal accessibility obligation has been met.

Last reviewed 2026-07-31