When Regulation Becomes Cultural Authority
Regulation should set boundaries. It should not define belonging.
When regulatory bodies move beyond enforcing safety, legality, or compliance and begin defining what is “acceptable,” “appropriate,” or “community standard,” they shift from oversight into cultural authority.
Standards are not neutral.
Who defines what is professional?
Who defines what is impartial?
Who defines what is respectful, balanced, appropriate?
These definitions shape whose language is legitimate.
Whose tone is credible.
Whose behaviour fits.
Whose culture is seen as deviation.
For Deaf communities, this is not abstract.
When hearing norms are embedded inside policy language — “clear speech,” “appropriate tone,” “balanced perspective,” “standard communication” — Deaf expression becomes something measured against hearing comfort.
Regulation becomes a gatekeeper of cultural legitimacy.
Underneath this is power.
Regulators are framed as neutral.
Standards are framed as universal.
But neutrality often reflects the dominant group.
When regulation becomes cultural authority, it does not simply protect the public.
It quietly shapes what is considered normal.
And what is normal determines who belongs.
When standards are enforced in the name of protection, whose culture is being protected, and whose is being reshaped?
