Re: question regarding printed PDF documents

Deborah, by my option (1), I meant the simple process of printing out the
form, then signing the paper form by hand - the method I understand your
organisation currently uses. Usually after the user has completed the
fields on screen first (though hand completion is also valid but more prone
to error later).

But I wasn't clear when you said "We have the options of adding a signature
field – I believe users have to set up a signature to use it. I found that
process confusing, and Legal won’t accept it." Do you mean that you allow
users to use both methods (digital signing or printing the form), but only
accept the latter? That seems very strange.

So to repeat, all methods, whether digital signing or signing a signature
by hand, all present problems for some disabled people (and also for others
due to their equipment or their circumstances). They are all inaccessible
to some people.

Take your current method of printing off the form before signing. That is
obviously no good for blind people. It has two issues particularly:
a) printers frequently give problems; they can print a blank page due to
the ink running out, or they corrupt the text for whatever reason, or print
out of position due to wrong printer settings so that much of the text
(including some of the data the user might have entered) is missing off the
edge of the paper. And it can also happen that some other document was
stored in the print queue and gets printed off first, so the user signs a
wrong document entirely. A blind person has no way of knowing if any of
those happen, and may not have a sighted person available to tell them. And
b), a blind person cannot see where to sign. The solution you mention of
allowing the signature to be anywhere on the page solves (b), but doesn't
solve (a). I imagine a blind person would probably prefer a WCAG compliant
digital signing, though I've never asked anyone about that.

But replacing that manual method by digital signing also fails for some
people as I explained. Offering the user a choice of all the options is the
best way to be accessible to almost everyone.