Penny Robertson has been involved for nearly 30 years in developing key initiatives for people with Down syndrome and other disabilities at local, state, national and international levels.
Penny started her career as a geologist. She later became a lecturer in Adult Education at Adelaide University and a teacher for the South Australian Education Department prior to the birth in 1981 of her daughter Shona, who has Down syndrome.
Penny was President of the South Australian Down Syndrome Association from 1982 to 1993. The Association was the first to set up an early intervention programme for babies with Down syndrome, and other achievements there include the initiation of a hospital visiting programme for new parents, a counselling and training programme, and a school support programme for students with Down syndrome to be mainstreamed into schools.
She became President of the Australian Down Syndrome Association in 1986 and held this position until 1994. This national body took responsibility for political lobbying, community awareness and instigating pilot programmes, such as teleconferencing for isolated parents in country towns and the Australian "outback".
Penny co-founded Down Syndrome International (DSi) in 1993. She also founded the Asia Pacific Down Syndrome Federation in 1994.
In 1994 Penny and her family moved to Jakarta, Indonesia, where she started the Australian International School (AIS), which provides inclusive education in a mainstream setting on 4 campuses for 800 students including those with physical and intellectual disability. AIS in Jakarta is the only international school in Jakarta which accepts students with disabilities as a matter of school policy. The success of the school has been such that it now has campuses in Jakarta, Bali and Balikpapan. AIS has delivered regular training courses in various aspects of special needs education and school management to local schools and institutions as well as to Education Department staff from various directorates.
Penny has consulted widely with Indonesian Government agencies about educational services and curriculum development for people with disabilities throughout Indonesia and she has played a significant role in establishing support programmes and national Down Syndrome Associations in Singapore, Malaysia, Japan and the Philippines.
Penny has spoken at conferences worldwide on subjects as diverse as parent-professional interactions, medical ethics and special education where she has continued to campaign for the acceptance of people with disabilities; at the signing of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in New York in 2007, DSi was represented by Dan Weeks and Penny Robertson.
In 1991 the Australian Government awarded Penny as a Member of the Order of Australia for her services to the education of the intellectually disabled.
On 21 March 2011, Penny received a President's Special Recognition Award at the 2011 World Down Syndrome Day Awards. This award recognised a lifetime's achievement in Down syndrome advocacy and it will be formally presented at the 11th World Down Syndrome Congress in Cape Town, South Africa in August 2012.
