Over the years ASL interpretation for in-person AA meetings in Vancouver, WA has been provided by a variety of entities, including Intergroup, District Accessibilities committees, Deaf Access Committees outside of Vancouver, WA, and various versions of committees similar to VDAC today. Ultimately, the work has been transitioned many times, and the history has gotten lost, but all along there have been members of the Deaf community within AA in Vancouver getting and staying sober with AA and their higher powers.
PDAC (Portland Deaf Access Committee) hired and paid ASL interpreters for Vancouver, WA AA meetings. To better align with AA's 7th Tradition - "Every A.A. group ought to be fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions." - PDAC decided to separate Vancouver meetings from the Portland Deaf Access Committee. PDAC provided several months of funding to "seed" the creation of Vancouver Deaf Access Committee. With the help of many AA members, groups, and support from Districts, VDAC was again founded in April 2024. Meetings which had already been scheduled by PDAC continued as planned. The hiring of interpreters and coordination with Deaf AA members was slowly transitioned as VDAC "got it's sea legs" and by the end of 2024 we were fully self-supporting.
Tradition 9 of Alcoholics Anonymous tells us "A.A., as such, ought never be organized; but we may create service boards or committees directly responsible to those they serve." VDAC is directly responsible to our Deaf members, and we report back to District 7 business meetings, District 37 business meetings, and the Area 72 Accessibilities committee. The service we provide is hiring and paying for interpreters for in-person AA meetings and events in Vancouver, WA.
ASL interpretation costs a great deal - one hour of ASL interpretation is roughly $65.00. If a Deaf alcoholic wants to attend a meeting at a group that isn't thriving financially, expecting that group to fund an interpreter is unreasonable.
Like hearing members of AA, Deaf alcoholics have jobs, families, and extremely full lives. We love that your group is welcoming, inclusive, and interested in carrying the message to Deaf alcoholics...however, if your groups meeting time/location/format, etc. doesn't work for Deaf alcoholics, paying for an interpreter to attend your meeting is not the best use of resources. Deaf members interested in attending meetings in Vancouver communicate directly with VDAC's Interpreter Coordinator to let them know which meetings they want to attend each month. Our interpreter coordinator then reaches out to ASL interpreters to fill those requests. We do occasionally have situations where we cannot get selected meetings covered, and in