Can’t sign your name on DMV docs? You have other options: Roadshow

Q: My wife Caroline has Alzheimer’s and I would like to get a REAL ID for her (not a driver’s license). I have a durable power of attorney for her. Caroline has a valid passport and I can submit the needed DMV ID forms online.

She cannot sign her name. Will the DMV process her REAL ID application? I am sure many others have the same problem.

Ron Pasqualini

A: Customers who cannot physically provide a signature at the DMV can use a signature stamp or sign using a non-English character or mark.

The signature made with a signature stamp by an authorized user is treated as a signature made in writing. An authorized user is a person with a disability who cannot write and owns a signature stamp, or a person using the signature stamp on behalf of the owner of the stamp, with the owner’s consent, and in the presence of the stamp owner.

The signature stamp may include any of the following:

• The actual signature of the person with the disability
• A mark or symbol adopted by the person with the disability
• The signature of the person with the disability that is made by another person who has been authorized by the person with the disability

Any customer who signs using non-English characters or with a mark must do so on both the application and the signature pad.

Two witnesses must sign their names near the non-English characters or mark made on the application signature line. A DMV employee may be one of the witnesses. One of the witnesses must print the customer’s name on the application next to the non-English characters or mark.

The DMV has a Senior Ombudsman Program. For such assistance in the Bay Area, contact the DMV’s San Francisco/Oakland Ombudsman Office at 510-563-8998.