AREA 49  S.E.N.Y.

To increase awareness in the Fellowship that there are AA members with special needs and to ensure that the message of recovery is available to such members. Respect for the dignity of others, with an emphasis on identification, is the guiding principle in our effort to carry the message to the alcoholic with special needs.

“Special needs” is a term used to describe those who may have more than the usual barriers to receiving the AA message. While there are no special AA members, some of our members are either blind or visually impaired, deaf or hard of hearing, chronically ill or homebound, sober over age sixty and in need of assistance, or developmentally impaired.

Everything. Imagine that one day you were unable to attend your regular AA meetings because of illness or a disability, or that once at a meeting, you could either not see the other members in the room or hear what they were saying, or for other reasons not participate fully. Accessibility means removing or reducing barriers that prevent AA members with special needs from receiving the message of recovery.

A partial list would include:

• Coordinating special needs workshops at the group, district, or area level. These workshops help AA members not only to recognize that there are members of the Fellowship with special needs but also to better understand how to carry the message to such members.
• Checking that the listings of wheelchair-accessible meetings and meetings for the deaf or hard of hearing in the New York Inter-Group meeting book are accurate and up-to-date.
• Creating a list of volunteers willing to bring meetings to homebound or hospitalized AA members and of volunteers willing to escort those who need assistance to AA meetings.
• Compiling and maintaining a list of professional American Sign Language ( ASL) interpreters as well as volunteer ASL interpreters from within the Fellowship.
• Making presentations about AA at schools for the blind, the deaf or hard of hearing, centers and schools for the developmentally disabled.

• Blind or visually impaired. AA literature is available in Braille, in large-print format, and on CDs, audiocassettes, and CD-ROMs.
• Deaf or hard of hearing. Such members can be directed to ASL-interpreted meetings. ASL-interpreted and closed-captioned AA videos are available. ASL-interpreted meetings are also available online—for example, at soberfingers.com.
• Physically challenged. Direct them to wheelchair-accessible meetings.
• Homebound or chronically ill. Maintain a list of volunteers who can bring a meeting into a home or hospital.
• Limited reading skills or developmentally disabled. For such members, a number of illustrated, easy-to-read resources are available, including “The Twelve Steps Illustrated” and “Ís AA for Me?” There are also pamphlets in comic book format: “What Happened to Joe?” and “It Happened to Alice.” (See the “Special Needs” section of the AA literature catalog for a complete listing of resources.)

Discuss at your group’s business meeting outreach to group members who are no longer able to attend the meeting because of illness or disability or those who need assistance in getting to the meeting. Remind the group that any one of us could be in a similar situation. Discuss with your group having a Special Needs representative to coordinate any needed assistance the those with special needs within your home group. For more information, see p.27 in the pamphlet “The AA Home Group.”

The Accessibility/Special Needs committee page on the SENY Web site, www.aaseny.org, offers online special needs resources. You may also wish to visit the Alcoholics Anonymous Web site at www.aa.org or call the Treatment Facilities/Special Needs desk at 212-870-3400.

There are no requirements beyond sobriety, a basic understanding of the Twelve Traditions, and a willingness to do this important Twelfth Step service. To become a volunteer, simply contact the SENY A/SN Committee chair at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Perhaps there is one, and that would be the capacity for empathy. For example, you are at a meeting and the AA member asked to read the AA Preamble or “How It Works,” from Chapter Five of Alcoholics Anonymous, has to pause frequently as he struggles with the pronunciation of some words. You feel a sense of irritability rising in you. You can read. Why can’t this member also learn to read? But then you imagine the shame and self-consciousness you might feel in a similar situation if you couldn’t readily comprehend the text in front of you because of lack of educational opportunity or disability. Or you are seized with impatience when you must wait behind an AA member who relies on a walker as she struggles up the few steps to the AA meeting place. In a sense, special needs service expands the meaning of “the alcoholic who still suffers,” as cited in Tradition Five. Thus, we begin to understand that such an alcoholic may often be a member with years of recovery as well as the newcomer to the Fellowship. Whether the individual is new or long established in recovery, the hand of AA must be there.

The 2012 Special Needs Share-A-Day titled "AA & Dual Diagnosis," was held on Saturday, January 7 at St. Francis College in Brooklyn. Go to the Calendar of Events to watch for future special events and activities.