The Access Stories Already in Sign

The disc is in your bag, next to whatever you use to get through a doorway, and it feels like homework. Maybe your hearing is gone. Maybe your sight is. Maybe you are sick in a way that does not finish, or you cannot leave the house, or a stroke changed what your body will do in a chair. Someone said the stories were already in sign, as if watching them were the step that comes before you are allowed to need help.

You do not have to watch it before you count. A desire to stop drinking is the line. The disc will not bring you an interpreter, a ride, or a ramp.

What the recording is

The literature catalog lists DV-17 as A.A. for the Alcoholic with Special Needs, in ASL. It is the experience of members with hearing and visual challenges, who are chronically ill, housebound, or have had brain damage or a stroke. That is the description. The stories stay inside the recording. They are not a script for your building, and they are not a set of symptoms you have to match before the door counts you.

You can watch a piece of it if sign is how language reaches you and you want to know you are not the first. You can stop in the middle. You can never press play. Membership is not a viewing log. The only requirement is a desire to stop drinking. There are no dues or fees. You are welcome regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, income, or profession. The welcome does not add a line about stairs, captions, or whether you finished a DVD.

If you love the person who cannot get in, you still do not get to assign the video. An open meeting is for anyone interested, and a nonalcoholic may attend as an observer. A closed meeting is for members, or for people with a drinking problem and a desire to stop. Ask which meeting you are walking toward. Then ask, out loud, what this particular group can do. The answer may be small. The answer may be nothing. A no is about that group.

What the disc cannot carry into the room

An ASL video does not put an interpreter in the local meeting. It does not send a car. It does not build a ramp or widen a bathroom door. When getting in is the barrier is the page that stays with the entrance itself. You cannot hear what they share is the page for the hour when the words never arrive. After a stroke you can still sit is about the chair, not about performing someone else's recovery story. Use the page that matches the barrier. Do not use the disc as a substitute for asking.

Groups set their own format. Some meet in person, in rooms that may be offices, churches, treatment centers, community centers, clubhouses, or outdoors. Some of those rooms will work for your body. Some will not. You cannot know from a DVD. Some meetings are online, video on or video off, or by phone. Phone meetings matter if leaving the house is the part that fails. If you are housebound, a phone hour is still a meeting. Online meetings let you keep a camera off. A camera off is not an interpreter, and it is not a ramp. It is a way to be present when the building is the problem.

Tell one person what you need. You can say you cannot hear, or you cannot see the page, or you cannot do the stairs, or you cannot get a ride. Then stop. You do not owe a medical history. Introducing yourself is not mandatory. You do not have to join a prayer. You can pass when sharing comes around. You can leave. You can just listen if talking would cost too much.

aa.org is not a meeting finder. Local lists are. The meetings search on this site is not verified here. Read any access note the group actually wrote, and confirm it, because a note can be old or missing. How to find a meeting is the search. What to expect at a first meeting still describes the sharing, which is experience, strength, and hope. None of that hands you a key to the building.

If you are in danger, skip the disc

Call 911 if you are sick, confused, or cannot breathe. Call or text 988 if you are in a mental health crisis. NIAAA says alcohol withdrawal can be life-threatening when a person who drinks heavily over time stops suddenly. A story about illness is not treatment for withdrawal. NIDA says mutual-help groups such as A.A. are peer-led, not led by healthcare professionals, and not a substitute for treatment. A meeting is peer support. It is not detox.

FindTreatment.gov lists programs. SAMHSA's National Helpline, 1-800-662-HELP (4357), is free, confidential, and available 24/7 in English and Spanish.

Tonight

You count if you want to stop drinking. Watch DV-17 only if it helps you feel less alone. If it feels like a test, leave it in the bag. Pick a meeting you can actually enter, including a phone meeting or a video-off meeting if the door is the problem. Tell one person what the barrier is. Then let the hour be the hour.

Call (800) 653-9376 if you need treatment; the call is free to you, treatment providers pay for the referral, the line is not an intergroup, and the line is not A.A., and it is not SMART Recovery.

Additional Resources

Sources cited on this page:

• A.A. World Services 2025 literature catalog
• A.A.: The Big Book
• A.A.: What to Expect at an A.A. Meeting
• A.A.: Need help with a drinking problem?
• A.A.: The Twelve Traditions
• A.A.: Find A.A. Near You
• NIDA: Treatment
• NIAAA: Core resource on alcohol
• SAMHSA: National Helpline
• SAMHSA FindTreatment.gov
• 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline
• SmarterRecovery meetings search
• SmarterRecovery about page

Common Questions