McDonald, Heather Anne

Born deaf at Port Alberni, BC; her parents, along with other local parents of deaf children, formed an association to try establishing a special class for deaf and hard of hearing children but this was not successful and the pupils, including Heather, transferred to the Jericho Hill School for the Deaf in 1978. After graduation she took computer programming courses and worked for an insurance company. A reconsideration of her career strengths and interests led her to take more courses to change fields and become a community support worker, and she worked in that capacity in a variety of locations as well as teaching ASL.