Digital Signatures in PDF Documents with JAWS

Digital signatures are used to identify you when you electronically sign a document. A digital signature is more than just a scanned image of your physical handwritten signature, which could then be scanned again by anyone and reproduced at will. It has security layers built in, including:

Create a Self-signed Digital ID

This process creates a digital ID that has two keys. One is a private key that only you will use to sign digital documents. The other is a public key that you send to others who need to validate your signature or identity.

NOTE: For Adobe® Reader® the steps are similar. Start by going to Edit > Protection submenu > Security Settings.

  1. Open Adobe Acrobat® X Pro.
  2. Press ALT+V to open the View menu, and then choose the Tools submenu T.
  3. Press S to choose Sign & Certify. The tools pane appears on the right side of the screen.
  4. Press F6 to move to the tools pane, and then press DOWN ARROW until you find More Sign & Certify.
  5. Press ENTER on More Sign & Certify. A context menu appears.
  6. Press ENTER on Security Settings in the menu. The Security Settings dialog box opens.
  7. Press TAB to move to the tree view on the left side of the dialog box.
  8. Press UP or DOWN ARROW to find Digital IDs in the tree view. As you move up and down the tree view items change in the right side of the screen.
  9. Press TAB to move to the Add ID button, and then activate it with the SPACEBAR. The Add Digital ID dialog box opens focus is on a radio button to create my existing digital ID from a file.
  10. Press DOWN ARROW to select the radio button for a new digital ID you want to create now, and then press ENTER to activate the Next button. Focus is on a radio button for New PKCS#12 digital ID file.
  11. Press ENTER to activate the Next button. The page changes to show edit boxes for Name, etc.
  12. Type in your name, and then press TAB, filling out the edit boxes for organizational unit, organization name, and e-mail address.
  13. Select your country in the country combo box.
  14. Press TAB to move to the Next button, and then activate it with the ENTER Key. The next page appears with focus in the path to where the digital ID will be stored. Usually this is deep within your user folder, beneath your user name, AppData, etc.
  15. Press TAB to move to the password edit box and type in a password you will use for your digital ID.
  16. Press TAB once more and retype your password in the confirm password field.
  17. Press ENTER to activate the Finish button. The Add ID dialog box closes, and focus returns to the Security Settings dialog box.

Share Your Public Key

Next you need to export the public key certificate for your new digital ID. This is what you send to people who need to verify that the signature they receive is indeed from you.

  1. Press TAB to move to the list view where your new certificate is located, and then make sure it is selected in the list.
  2. Press TAB to move to the Export button, and then press ENTER to activate it. A Data Exchange File - Export Options dialog box opens. Focus is on the radio button to e-mail the data to someone. The other radio button choice is to create a data file, which could be e-mailed later.
  3. Press ENTER. A Compose E-mail dialog box opens. Type in the e-mail address of the person you wish to send the certificate to, and then press ENTER to activate the E-mail button. Your default e-mail program opens with the attachment and the e-mail with text already filled in explaining the certificate. Review the information and send it when you are ready.

Signing a Document with a Digital Signature

Acrobat X Pro

When you open a document that has a digital signature edit box JAWS® screen reading software announces the following: unverified, unsigned signature field, click to sign PDF signature, signature field is unsigned. To sign it:

  1. Press ENTER on the digital signature field. The Sign Document dialog box opens. Focus is in a combo box that has different signatures available to you. Choose the appropriate digital signature for the task.
  2. Press TAB to move to the Password edit box. Type in your password for the digital signature.
  3. If you wish to lock the document after signing, press ALT+L to move to the check box and make sure it is checked. Otherwise, just press ENTER to activate the Sign button. A Save As dialog box opens.
  4. Type in a new name for the document, and then press ENTER to save the changes. Your digital signature is now inserted into the document.

Adobe Reader

In order for people using Adobe Reader to be able to insert a signature the author of the PDF document needs to enable additional features in the document during the creation process. Here's how:

  1. Open the PDF document in Adobe Acrobat X Pro.
  2. Press ALT+F to open the File menu.
  3. Choose Save As submenu.
  4. Next, choose Reader Extended PDF submenu.
  5. Finally, choose Enable Additional Features. The Enable Usage Rights in Adobe Reader dialog box opens. Doing this gives several additional rights to the Reader user, including the ability to sign an existing signature field and digitally sign the document anywhere on the page, among other things.

The Enable Usage Rightsdialog box.

The Enable Usage Rights dialog box


  1. Press ENTER to activate the Save Now button. The dialog box closes.
  2. Give the document a new name, if desired, or choose to overwrite the original file.

Importing a Public Key to Verify Digital Signatures

When you read a PDF document that has a digitally signed ID you will hear JAWS announce that the ID is verified or unverified, depending on whether you have been given the public key for that signature. If you do not have a key, the digital signature is still there, it is just unverified. JAWS says: unverified, signer's ID is unknown. If you have been given a FDF data exchange file from the person whose digital signature you wish to verify, do the following:

  1. Press ENTER on the FDF data exchange file. Adobe Reader opens and presents the Data Exchange File - Import Contact dialog box. Focus is on the Set Contact Trust button.

The Data Exchange dialog box.

The Data Exchange dialog box


  1. Press ENTER to activate the Set Contact Trust button. The Import Contact Settings multi page dialog box opens. Focus is on the Trust tab.

The Import Contact Settings dialog box.

The Import Contact Settings dialog box


  1. Press TAB to move to the check box for Use this certificate as a trusted root, and then press SPACEBAR to check it.
  2. Press TAB to move to the check box for certified documents, and then press SPACEBAR to activate it.
  3. Press ENTER to activate the OK button. The Import Contact Settings dialog box closes and an Import Complete dialog box appears.

The Import Complete dialog box.

The Import Complete dialog box


  1. Press ENTER to activate the OK button. Focus returns to the Data Exchange File - Import Contact dialog box again.
  2. Press TAB to move to the Close button, and then press SPACEBAR to activate it.

Now when you press TAB to move to a digital signature, JAWS announces the following information: valid, valid signature PDF signature, and also speaks the signing person's name and e-mail address, as well as the date and time stamps for the signature.

Copyright

Published by the Training Department of Freedom Scientific, Inc.
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St. Petersburg, Florida 33716-1805, USA
http://www.FreedomScientific.com/training

Information in this document is subject to change without notice. This learning module is protected under copyright by Freedom Scientific. Please feel free, however, to use this module to create your own training materials to help others learn JAWS or MAGic. Also, feel free to share this training module with your friends and colleagues who might be interested in learning more about JAWS or MAGic. We ask only that you acknowledge Freedom Scientific as the copyright holder of any of this material you use.

Copyright© 2011 Freedom Scientific, Inc., all rights reserved.

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