Special Needs Accessibility

According to the AA General Service Office guidelines pamphlet MG-16 on Serving Alcoholics with Special Needs: "Respect for the dignity of others is the foundation for all our efforts to carry the message to alcoholics with special needs, with emphasis on identification rather than on how we are different...The goal is to include all alcoholics in the wonderful experience of belonging to a group and partaking of a full range of benefits of membership."

Members of Special Needs/Accessibility committees work with groups to assist them with guidelines to making their facilities accessible to all. Additionally, they let groups know of available resources such as ASL interpreters for the hearing impaired, braille literature, and other such accommodations.

A number of resources are available to anyone interested in ensuring all alcoholics can share and receive the AA message, most notably the document M-48i, the Special Needs/Accessibility Workbook.