Cognitive Continuity as a Civil Right: A Framework for Citizen-Bound Assistive Artificial Intelligence

Contemporary administrative, legal, educational, and healthcare systems implicitly assume uninterrupted cognition, stable memory, and sustained executive function as prerequisites for accessing rights and services. These assumptions disproportionately exclude disabled individuals whose conditions inherently affect cognition, memory, stamina, or communication. Concurrently, artificial intelligence systems are increasingly used by individuals as persistent cognitive supports, functioning as de facto memory prosthetics, organizational tools, and interpretive intermediaries. Despite their functional similarity to recognized assistive technologies, such systems remain legally unprotected and institutionally unrecognized. This paper advances a rights-based framework for Citizen-Bound Assistive Artificial Intelligence (CBAI): an opt-in, identity-bound AI system legally recognized as an assistive cognitive device operating under fiduciary duty to the individual. Drawing on disability theory, assistive technology scholarship, privacy law, and civil rights doctrine, the paper argues that cognitive continuity is a necessary condition for equal access and should be protected as a civil right.