NYC Deaf Access and AA’s 12 Traditions

As we do service, some questions have come up about how providing language access for the Deaf via ASL interpreters follows AA’s 12 Traditions and if there are potential conflicts. We also encourage people to remember that when we’re discussing having ASL interpreters at meetings, we’re discussing providing language access - a basic human right. PLEASE NOTE: The following are the thoughts of members of the NYCDAC - we do not speak for any other AA body nor do we speak for AA as a whole.

Tradition 1: “Our common welfare should come first; personal recovery depends upon A.A. unity.”

The principle behind Tradition 1 is unity. In order for AA to remain unified, we need to make our best efforts to make all the parts of our fellowship accessible to all those with a desire to access it. As it relates to the Deaf, one big way to bring more Deaf alcoholics into the fold is by providing language access via ASL interpreters. The NYC Deaf Access Committee is focused specifically on in-person meetings for 3 main reasons: 1. There is already a fairly extensive network of online/virtual meetings in ASL and ASL-interpreted - read more at the bottom of the NYC Meeting Schedule page. 2. ASL is a visual language which makes online platforms like Zoom not the most Deaf-friendly. and 3. Allowing options for in-person and virtual attendance gives Deaf and hard of hearing fellows the same agency and choice that hearing fellows have when deciding what kind of meeting they’d like to attend and doesn’t relegate Deaf fellows exclusively to online meetings. Providing language access via ASL interpreters helps us remain unified. This is also discussed on the Tips and FAQ page.

Tradition 3: “The only requirement for A.A. membership is a desire to stop drinking.”

The only requirement for membership is a desire to stop drinking, not the ability to hear. Tradition 3 deals partly with equity - that all are welcome in AA so long as they have the desire to stop drinking. The long form of Tradition 3 adds “Our membership ought to include all who suffer from alcoholism. Hence we may refuse none who wish to recover. Nor ought A.A. membership ever depend upon money or conformity” (p. 189). Tradition 3 reminds us that it is our responsibility to make AA available to all those with such a desire. Providing language access via ASL interpreters helps accomplish this. We’ll discuss money more in Traditions 6, 7, and 8.

Tradition 5: “Each group has but one primary purpose - to carry its message to the alcoholic who still suffers.”

While the AA Preamble (more on that below) speaks to our primary purpose as individuals, Tradition 5 speaks to our primary purpose as groups. In order for each group to fulfill its primary purpose on an ongoing basis, we must make sure that our message is not just carried, but able to be received. Tradition 5 is part of why AA literature is translated into other languages (including ASL). Providing language access via ASL interpreters is part of the 5th Tradition.

Tradition 6: “An A.A. group ought never endorse, finance, or lend the A.A. name to any related facility or outside enterprise, lest problems of money, property, and prestige divert us from our primary purpose.”

The principle behind Tradition 6 is non-affiliation, and for good reason. In order to follow Tradition 5, AA realized it needed to avoid getting pulled into any potential business ventures, especially money-making ventures, even (and especially) if those ventures were related to solving our common problem (alcoholism). Some AA members have asked if The NYC Deaf Access Fund (NYCDAF) goes against Tradition 6 - it does not. The NYCDAF is set up thru District 602 of AA in Manhattan, as part of their treasury, and as such, is an official part of the AA service structure, not an outside enterprise. Click here for more information on the Fund. Click here for more information on the AA service structure.

Tradition 7: “Every A.A. group ought to be fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions.”

Tradition 7 and the topic of money is often brought up when discussing the NYCDAF and our service of providing language access via ASL interpreters - since we hire professional interpreters and pay them for their work (more on this in Tradition 8). Because this is a topic that has been brought up many times, our explanation here is a bit lengthy, in the interest of sharing our experience from extensively examining how our work is in alignment with Tradition 7, not against it.

Before going further, it was helpful for us to again remember the Traditions in order - Tradition 7 being an extension and further hammering out of what began in Tradition 6. If AA was to avoid affiliating itself with outside enterprises in order to make money, the fellowship realized it would need to make clear to its members that we needed to be responsible for paying our own way as a fellowship. We kept that top of mind when investigating what follows.

Some AA members have asked if having interpreters at their meetings that were paid were by the NYCDAF (and not the group itself) goes against the 7th Tradition - it does not. The long form of Tradition 7 states “We think… that any public solicitation of funds using the name of Alcoholics Anonymous is highly dangerous,” (p. 190) where “public solicitations” would yield contributions from outside of AA, and contributions here refers to “funds.” The long form goes on to state “[We think] that acceptance of large gifts from any source, or of contributions carrying any obligation whatever, is unwise.” (p. 190). Where “large gifts” are concerned, in the time leading up to the establishment of this tradition, the 12 & 12 mentions that in some cases “grateful benefactors had endowed clubhouses” (p. 161) and that one time “[AA] had been presented with a hospital” (p. 161). With respect to money, the 12 & 12 mentions discussion of gifts of $5,000 (p. 161), $10,000 (p. 163-164), and “half a million dollars” ($500,000) (p. 164). Those are large gifts. We pay interpreters $70/meeting. At that rate, we would hit the $500,000 mark after 7,142 meetings. As of the writing of this paragraph (November 13, 2022), the NYCDAF has provided interpreters for 20 meetings. That is 0.27% of the way to 7,142 and, in our view, feels like a false parallel with respect to what should be viewed as a “large gift.”

Additionally, it is not technically a contribution to the group - you could view this service as a contribution to the Deaf community or to the fellowship of AA as a whole, or the money as a contribution to the pocket of the professional interpreters we pay for their work (more on this in Tradition 8); but providing language access to the Deaf is not a contribution to the group. If a group did want to view language access for the Deaf as a contribution to the group, they should encourage groups to ban hospitality/food service where it’s donated by individual AAs (some of whom might not consider themselves members of that particular group) and not paid for directly by the group, as these would need to similarly be considered outside contributions and therefore not allowed. We are not aware of any groups where that is the case for food, and so hope that won’t be the case for language access.

We can also look at the phrase “…contributions carrying any obligation whatever” (p. 190). Providing language access via ASL interpreters paid for by the NYCDAF carries no obligation to the group or to anyone. We are simply trying to "stay sober and help other alcoholics to achieve sobriety.” More on the AA Preamble below.

Some AA members have said they understand “outside contributions” to mean “contributions from outside of a particular group/meeting” and not “contributions from outside of AA.” As it relates to the NYCDAC, the argument here is that money from the NYC Deaf Access Fund is perhaps not entirely coming from contributions from the members of the meeting/group where the interpreter is hired. It’s a bit heady, but we are grateful for the opportunity to examine this interpretation of one of our fellowship’s primary texts. We find this interpretation gets a little tricky for two reasons.

First, some of these AA members belong to groups that are part of District 602. Many groups, when they have a surplus of 7th Tradition collection over their prudent reserve, make occasional contributions “down the triangle” - this includes contributions to their area and district. So if a group is in District 602, money from their 7th Tradition collection, including financial contributions by that group’s own members, would end up making its way to District 602’s treasury. In the past, District 602 has generously allocated some funds from their own financial surplus to the NYCDAF, in order to allow this life-saving service to continue. And while it’s impossible to track individual dollar contributions, if a group is in District 602 and makes contributions to the district, which in turn makes contributions to the NYCDAF - then some (or even all) of that contribution could very well be money from that original group’s members, and therefore could not be considered an “outside contribution,” even under this narrow definition of the phrase.

Second, the long form of Tradition 7 starts by saying “The A.A. groups themselves ought to be fully supported by the voluntary contributions of their own members” (p. 190). Going along with the above proposed understanding of Tradition 7 (in bold), we’ll let the premise be that “groups should only use funds contributed by members of that particular group, and should decline any contributions directly or indirectly from non-members of that particular group.” If this is how a group wanted to interpret Tradition 7, then yes, you could view providing language access to Deaf alcoholics via ASL interpreters paid for by the NYCDAF as being in violation of this particular interpretation of the 7th Tradition. But we wanted to play that tape forward and think through that interpretation a little more before anyone acted on anything…

If that’s the case, any group subscribing to that logic would need to track down and return money (“contributions”) to any person ever who did not consider themself a member of that group at the time at which they made a contribution - including but not limited to people who were visiting from out of town when they attended the meeting, people who were at that meeting for the first time, and anyone else who might have attended that meeting but didn’t necessarily consider themself a member of that particular group when they made a contributions. Since those contributions would be coming from people who were not members of that group, by this narrow logic, all that money from over the years would need to be considered “outside contributions” as well and would need to be returned. Furthermore, anything that might have been purchased or paid for over the years (literature, hospitality/food service, rent) would need to be returned, as well, lest the group find itself in violation of their own interpretation of 7th Tradition.

This is, of course, an impossible task and seems to point toward the interpretation of “outside contributions” meaning “from outside of AA” and not “from outside of that particular group and its members.” Every part of the AA service structure on all levels (including groups and individual members) supporting other parts of the AA service structure is a foundational part of the way our fellowship operates.

Tradition 8: “Alcoholics Anonymous should remain forever nonprofessional, but our service centers may employ special workers.”

Some AA members have asked why we pay for interpreters instead of finding AA members to volunteer their time and interpret for free. The answer is in the 8th Tradition. We don’t pay people to do 12-Step work, but we can and should pay people who make 12-Step work possible. Interpreters are not doing 12-Step work, but, by providing language access, they are making it possible. As laid out in the 12 & 12, history has shown that depending on volunteers to do service that would be a formal job outside of AA is not reliable and not a prudent way to operate - this is why we hire professional interpreters and pay them for their time, as opposed to looking for volunteer interpreters - so that we have a reliable, dependable, professional time and financial commitment for this service. Tradition 8 speaks to the fact that if there’s a service I would need to pay for in the outside world, I can and should pay for it inside of AA. And Tradition 7 speaks to the fact that it’s our responsibility to make that happen for ourselves financially - we don’t ask for handouts in AA, and we don’t reach outside of AA for money (Traditions 6 and 7) - we pay our own way. That is part of what it means to be self-supporting. One AA questioned why we pay for interpreters instead of using volunteers, citing the fact that we make our own coffee in AA, we don’t hire professional baristas to come make coffee for us. This is true. We don’t hire professional baristas to come make coffee, we have AA members volunteer to do it. This is because having coffee at a meeting (while it can make a meeting space more hospitable) does not make 12-Step work possible in the same way that providing language access via ASL interpreters does. This was a false parallel, but we were grateful for the opportunity to consider the why.

Tradition 9: “A.A., as such, ought never be organized; but we may create service boards or committees directly responsible to those they serve.”

Tradition 9 points clearly toward not only allowing for but actively needing a service like a Deaf Access committee. The 12 & 12 states “It is clear now that we ought never to name boards to govern us, but it is equally clear that we shall always need to authorize workers to serve us. It is the difference between the spirit of vested authority and the spirit of service” (p. 174). This relates back to Tradition 2, reminding us that a committee like NYCDAC doesn’t govern anyone, but operates in the spirit of service for the Deaf community and AA as a whole (more on that in the next paragraph). It’s even in the naming of this kind of committee - this Tradition refers to them as “service committees” so that the reason for their existence should always remain clear.

The 12 & 12 goes on to state, “Just as the aim of each A.A. member is personal sobriety, the aim of our services is to bring sobriety within reach of all who want it,” (p. 175), relating back to Traditions 5, 3, and 1. “If nobody does the group’s chores, if the area’s telephone rings unanswered, if we do not reply to our mail, then A.A. as we know it would stop. Our communications lines with those who need our help would be broken.” (p. 175) The NYC Deaf Access Committee serves a similar function with respect to the Deaf community and AA as a whole - to make sure our lines of communication with the Deaf community remain not only open, but prioritized, which we accomplish by establishing a specialized committee with this single focus - thus maintaining unity (Tradition 1) and creating equity (Tradition 3) in how we carry the message (Tradition 5).

NYCDAC gives Deaf alcoholics a centralized place to turn for support or questions specifically as it relates to the Deaf community and AA in NYC. NYCDAC also closes the long-open feedback loop by creating a place for Deaf alcoholics to turn to for support if they’re facing any accessibility roadblocks with groups/meetings, etc on their path to recovery. NYCDAC works in cooperation with the SENY Accessibility Committee, but being a separate committee for the Deaf allows us to focus specifically on service to that community, so that the SENY Accessibility committee can continue to focus on all disability communities equally.

The Responsibility Statement: “I am responsible, when anyone, anywhere, reaches out for help, I want the hand of AA always to be there, and for that I am responsible.”

This relates heavily to Traditions 3 and 5, as well as Tradition 1. It is our responsibility to make sure that all those seeking recovery can access it and receive our message in a way that it can be understood. Providing language access via ASL interpreters helps fulfill this responsibility. The NYC Deaf Access Committee is creating the framework to make this possible, but we can’t succeed with your individual and AA’s (unified, Tradition 1) support.

The AA Preamble: “…our primary purpose is to stay sober and help other alcoholics to achieve sobriety”

While Tradition 5 deals with each group’s primary purpose, the Preamble speaks to our primary purpose as individuals. Providing language access via ASL interpreters helps us act in accordance with our primary purpose as individuals, as well as groups. Interpreters help bridge gaps in language and culture, so that we can carry the message and successfully “help other alcoholics to achieve sobriety.”

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