Circleg

Amputees, prosthetists, and community health workers use Circleg's modular "Circleg One" system and training programs to provide navigator-side assistive-technology access where formal prosthetic services are unavailable.

ENABLE Model location

• Navigator-side Compensations → Use Assistive Technologies

What it is

Circleg produces a modular prosthetic system intended to combine durable components with simplified fitting workflows, local training, and service models geared toward broader accessibility. The product offering ("Circleg One") pairs componentized limbs with training for prosthetists and community health workers, local access points in partner regions, and psychosocial supports for users. Circleg positions itself as a social enterprise focused on scalable, person-centered prosthetic care rather than one-off charitable deliveries.

This represents a Navigator-side Compensation strategy insofar as Circleg's model provides practical, distributed access when existing health systems and markets do not supply affordable prosthetic options at scale.

Why it matters

Global access to prosthetics is profoundly unequal. In many low-resource regions, amputees face barriers to mobility due to cost, shortages of local expertise, and geographic distance from prosthetist services -- resulting in long waits, device abandonment, and exclusion from work and community life.

When builders fail to fund, design, or distribute accessible prosthetic infrastructure, amputees are left to carry the burden navigator-side: paying out-of-pocket, traveling long distances, or living in precarity -- relying on ad-hoc charity. Circleg shortens the path to usable devices by combining modular components with localized training and networked access points. That navigator-side compensation reduces immediate harm (faster fittings, easier repairs, lower unit costs) while simultaneously signaling where builder-side investment is still required -- public funding, clinician training, and inclusive supply chains -- to render such compensations unnecessary.

Real-world example

Circleg operates partnerships and access points in East Africa and provides certification training programs for local prosthetists and technicians. Their online contact and support resources include region-specific channels, demonstrating an operational model that combines Switzerland-based design and oversight with local distribution and service hubs.

What care sounds like (builder-side interventions)

Care at the builder-side phase involves integrating affordable prosthetic supply into health systems and ensuring local capacity:

• "We fund and certify local prosthetists so people can get fitted within their region, not after traveling hundreds of kilometers."
• "We subsidize components and train community health workers in maintenance and basic fitting so devices stay functional over time."
• "We partner with local clinics to provide psychosocial support alongside prosthetic services."
• "We design modular components that are repairable with local tools and materials."

What neglect sounds like (builder-side interventions)

Neglect involves leaving prosthetic access to market forces or ad-hoc charity:

• "We only distribute high-end prosthetics to profitable markets; low-income regions are not our concern."
• "We expect NGOs to handle prosthetic access; it's not a health systems responsibility."
• "We don't invest in training local clinicians; devices break and never get maintained."

What compensation sounds like (navigator-side compensations)

Compensation describes the labor users and local providers undertake when systemic access is absent:

• "I travel to a regional access point and pay out-of-pocket for a basic modular limb because my local hospital doesn't offer fitting services."
• "Local prosthetists adapt modular components when sockets or feet wear out because replacement parts are delayed."
• "Community health workers run maintenance workshops to keep devices functional between formal clinic visits."

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All observations occur within the context of global prosthetic access, social-enterprise approaches to assistive technology, and efforts to scale person-centered rehabilitation in low-resource settings.