Alexander,

First of all, thanks for catching my mistakes - I had it working in production, then made some changes in my stag environment and that's where you saw the errors.  

As for getting the signature side of things to work properly, I cannot figure out where this should be inserted into my code.  I've tried replacing the entire:

$('#form1 input, #form1 select, #form1 textarea).filter(':visible').each(function() {

code and removing the filter(':visible'), and this hid all fields from the beginning.  

My assumption was that this new code should go as a nested if before we check if 'valid' is returned, but I am not savvy enough with JS to figure out exactly where this goes.  Below is what I've tried with little success, hopefully I am just missing another ' !!

//Pagination
//hide everything at start
$(document).ready(function() {
  $('.sections, .Submit, .check').hide();

$('.navitem').on('touchstart click', function () {

//validate whether the required fields are filled
  var valid = true;
 		$('#form1 select, #form1 input, #form1 textarea').filter(':visible').each(function() {
 	if(!$(this).checkValidity()) {valid = false;
 }
 });
 if($('.signature input').checkValidity()){valid = false;
 }
if(!valid) { return;} 
  $('.navbar .selected').addClass('completed');
  $('.navbar .selected .check').show();
  $('.sections, .Submit').hide();
  $('.navbar').find('.navitem').removeClass('selected');
	if ($(this).hasClass('pos')) {
	$('.section1').show();
              $('.navbar .pos .check .check1, .Submit').hide();
	$('.navbar').find('.pos').addClass('selected');
 }
 	else if ($(this).hasClass('app')) {
 		$('.section2').show();
 		$('.navbar').find('.app').addClass('selected', 'completed');
 }
 	else if ($(this).hasClass('emp')) {
 		$('.section3').show();
 		$('.navbar').find('.emp').addClass('selected');
 }
 
 	else if ($(this).hasClass('skl')) {
 		$('.section4').show();
 		$('.navbar').find('.skl').addClass('selected');
 }
 	else if ($(this).hasClass('ref')) {
 		$('.section5').show();
 		$('.navbar').find('.ref').addClass('selected');
 }
 
 	else if ($(this).hasClass('apps')) {
 		$('.section6, .Submit').show();
 		$('.navbar').find('.apps').addClass('selected');
 }
 	else if ($(this).hasClass('aff')) {
 		$('.section7, .Submit').show();
 		$('.navbar').find('.aff').addClass('selected');
 }
  
 })
 $('.pos').trigger('click');
    if ($('#Field7').prop('tagName') != 'INPUT')
  {
	$('.navbar').hide();
	$('.navitem').hide();
	$('.Submit').hide();
	$('.sections').show();
  }
});
//End Pagination

This gives me the desired result for all fields, just not Signatures.  I do notice that the Signature field gets the 'Please fill out this field' text below it, so its promising, just cannot get it to prevent me from going to the next tab like the other fields!!  Any help is much appreciated.  

Thanks,

Nate