ARIA property
aria-valuemin
The lowest value a range control accepts.
It sets the bottom of the range, and it is not always zero. Change it and every announced proportion changes with it, because position is worked out across the whole range rather than from the value on its own.
Which roles may carry aria-valuemin
- Value
- number
- Filed as
- A property, which is how ARIA files it and not a rule about how often it changes.
- Roles that may carry it
range,scrollbar,separator,slider,spinbutton- Roles that inherit it
meter,progressbar,scrollbar,slider,spinbutton
Those lists are not advice. Browsers are required to ignore a non-global attribute sitting on a role that does not support it, so aria-valuemin on the wrong element is not weak, it is absent. You can read it in the DOM and nobody using a screen reader can.
Every role above comes from the specification's own list for this attribute, checked name for name. The normative definition stays with the W3C, in the aria-valuemin section of the ARIA specification.
Keeping aria-valuemin true
Bounds that depend on data are bounds that move, so a slider rebuilt for a new data set has to write the minimum, the maximum and the current value, not just the one that changed. There is a second reason to set this deliberately. On a slider, scrollbar or focusable separator carrying no aria-valuenow at all, the value assistive technology gets is the midpoint between the minimum and the maximum, so these bounds decide what a missing value announces as.
How aria-valuemin gets checked
There are test rules that check an ARIA attribute is one that exists, is allowed on the role underneath it, and carries a value of the right type. What they map to is ARIA's own author requirements rather than any WCAG criterion, so a misplaced attribute breaks ARIA without being a WCAG failure by itself. It becomes one under 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value the moment the missing or wrong value means the control's state cannot be worked out programmatically, which is what usually happens next.
Nothing automated catches the failure this page is about. A stale value is a valid value, on a permitted role, with the right type. It is only wrong about the world.
Attributes you will meet alongside aria-valuemin
- aria-disabled Says a control is present but not available. Unlike the disabled attribute, it stays focusable, so people can still find out it is there.
- aria-errormessage Points at the message explaining why this field is invalid. Only meaningful while aria-invalid is set.
- aria-haspopup Says this control opens something, and what kind of thing it opens. A menu, a dialog, a listbox.
- aria-invalid Says a field's value has failed validation.
- aria-orientation Whether a widget runs horizontally or vertically, which decides which arrow keys move through it.
- aria-readonly The value can be read but not changed. Unlike disabled, it is still part of the form.
- aria-required Says a field has to be filled in before the form can be submitted.
- aria-valuemax The highest value a range control accepts.
Every ARIA state and property · Every ARIA role · ARIA explained