Jugaad AT | Alexheathreed

Jugaad Assistive Technology

The Jugaad Assistive Technology project explores how frugal innovation can support people with disabilities in the Global South by documenting and inspiring low-cost, locally made solutions. Led by Heath Reed at Lab4Living, this project applies the Indian concept of jugaad—a flexible, resourceful approach to problem-solving, to the field of assistive technology (AT). Recognising that many communities in the Global South face significant barriers to accessing formal AT, the project investigates how individuals and families creatively repurpose everyday materials to meet their own mobility and care needs.

Through partnerships with organisations including Ativa Design, The Indian Institute for Technology, School of Design, and The Latika Roy Foundation (https://latikaroy.org/), the team has conducted fieldwork in India, including interviews with NGO staff and photographic and video documentation of grassroots AT solutions in organisations, cities and towns across India including Mumbai, Delhi, and Kolkata. These insights are being used to build a shared resource that highlights unmet needs, showcases local ingenuity, and prompts the development of new, affordable assistive products. By foregrounding lived experience and community-led innovation, the Jugaad AT project challenges conventional models of design and provision. It contributes to a growing movement that values adaptability, cultural relevance, and sustainability in global health and disability support.

Several user workshops were held with MND patients, their carers and staff at Neurogen facilities in Mumbai. These used the UK teams experiences deigning the Head Up product to help kick start discussions and build trust in the respondent group. A pivotal finding from these discussions was that, in this social and economic context, the existing Head Up collar was exclusive (with a cost in the west of around £200). This led to discussions about how, given there was no intellectual property cover in India, the published patent may be used as a pattern to create local and affordable versions of the design. Further, with labour and material costs being significantly less than in the west, how a range of frugal intervention might be created, inspired by the real real world creativity found 'on the street'.

Adapted bicycle, exemplifying the spirit of Jugaad. The owner has outfitted it with a crank-driven grinding wheel. By repurposing a common mode of transport into a mobile knife-sharpening rig, the owner has created a self-sufficient business that requires no electricity, no fixed premises, and minimal investment. It’s a solution born of necessity, a frugal, inventive response to real-world constraints powered by creativity. The grinding wheel, linked to the pedal mechanism, transforms human effort into mechanical utility, an elegant fusion of mobility and productivity. This kind of grassroots innovation reflects the jugaad ethos: resourcefulness, resilience, and the ability to turn limitations into opportunities and is a testament adaptive thinking and local knowledge.