So I’ve been interested in recording and sharing more video content these days but I’m running into accessibility hurdles at every step of the way. I have the iPhone SE 2020 and the latest version of iOS. Even trying to edit a video clip that I took in the native iOS photo zapped proved excruciating. I couldn’t figure out how to scroll through the video. There is a control that voiceover announces as a scrubber but it doesn’t respond to flicking up and down like I would expect. I was able to trim the beginning of the video to my liking, but trying to trim the end of the video was very difficult because every time I adjusted the trim control for the ending, video playback starts from the very beginning. With no way to advance playback to near the end so I can decide where to cut it off, it was a tedious game of trial and error.
No problem, I thought. I’ve heard other users mention the iMovie app so I decided to give that a shot. The situation was even worse here. I was able to import a clip into a new project, but no editing controls whatsoever were announced by voiceover for trimming the clip. Double tapping on the clip sometimes caused trim controls to appear, but other times it did not. When they did appear, I still found them unresponsive with voiceover. As a result, I quickly abandoned iMovie.
Finally I thought, OK – since I’ll be posting this on Instagram anyway, maybe the video editing facilities of the Instagram app are accessible. After all, Facebook seems to have been more focused on accessibility lately, so I gave it a shot. This was an absolute nonstarter. Even trying to record a video from scratch using Instagram was difficult, as double tapping on the record button does nothing. Anyway, as you can see, I’ve had a frustrating and discouraging experience with something that should be simple, and I don’t know what else to try.
Some of this could be user error, as maybe there are tricks or secrets to getting these apps to behave properly that I’m just not aware of. I suspect that many of you may use third-party apps to achieve your video editing goals. In either event, I would welcome any suggestions you might have. It’s sad to me that Apple can’t get this right. I must say, as of late, Microsoft is running circles around Apple in terms of accessibility.
By Luke, 24 June, 2020
Forum
iOS and iPadOS
Comments
How's this going?
Hey there. Did you ever find a solution to this that works for you?
I edit my own YouTube videos. When I use iMovie, I absolutely have to use a bluetooth keyboard. Some of the keystrokes take a little experimentation depending on the keyboard you're using, but in iMovie, I'm able to select and cut out parts of the video I don't like. I can add sound effects, music and media.
I can't rearrange things. I haven't figured that out yet. I can't insert cards at points of my videos because that doesn't seem to be accessible. I can't add text to frames or photos or anything like that. Again, it doesn't seem to work with voiceover.
For more complex editing, I use Reaper on windows. It's primarily for audio but does work with videos for what I need it for. I''m still getting back into using it, so I'm really not certain if you can split screen, add text to video frames or pop up bubbles or cards like you can in other apps dedicated to video editing. But I can add music, rearrange things, add media, sounds, etc. It's a learning curve, but it is doable.
I know many Mac users have incredible success with Final cut Pro and I am incredibly jealous.
just need to trim the start and the end of my video
Using IOs15 here, and all i need is to cut the start and end points,
How can i do that? can i do that using the Ios native app? or do i need an external app?
I gave up on iOS for video editing
Thanks for the interest in this post. I gave up on trying to work with video in iOS many months ago because it just doesn’t seem like Apple is all that interested in making it accessible. Like somebody else here mentioned, I’ve been using Reaper, a program intended mostly for audio recording and editing, because it does do basic video editing pretty well, and thanks to some third-party Scripps it’s totally accessible. I know that’s beyond the scope of this forum but if anybody’s interested in getting up and running with Reaper I am happy to help. Let me know.