Patch for issue #106

gistfile1.txt

diff --git a/ui/jquery.ui.selectmenu.js b/ui/jquery.ui.selectmenu.js
index deb7b41..b84661c 100644
--- a/ui/jquery.ui.selectmenu.js
+++ b/ui/jquery.ui.selectmenu.js
@@ -260,7 +260,20 @@ $.widget("ui.selectmenu", {
 
 		// write li's
 		for (var i = 0; i < selectOptionData.length; i++) {
-				var thisLi = $('<li role="presentation"' + (selectOptionData[i].disabled ? ' class="' + this.namespace + '-state-disabled' + '"' : '' ) + '><a href="#" tabindex="-1" role="option"' + (selectOptionData[i].disabled ? ' aria-disabled="true"' : '' ) + ' aria-selected="false"' + (selectOptionData[i].typeahead ? ' typeahead="' + selectOptionData[i].typeahead + '"' : '' ) + '>'+ selectOptionData[i].text +'</a></li>')
+		  
+				var thisLiAttr = {role : 'presentation'};
+				if (selectOptionData[i].disabled) {
+				  thisLiAttr['class'] = this.namespace + '-state-disabled';
+				}
+				
+				var thisAAttr = {href : '#', tabindex : -1, role : 'option','aria-selected' : false, 'aria-disabled' : selectOptionData[i].disabled};
+				if (selectOptionData[i].typeahead) {
+				  thisAAttr['typeahead'] = selectOptionData[i].typeahead;
+				}
+				
+				var thisA = $('<a/>', thisAAttr);
+				thisA.append(selectOptionData[i].text);
+				var thisLi = $('<li/>', thisLiAttr)
 				.data('index', i)
 				.addClass(selectOptionData[i].classes)
 				.data('optionClasses', selectOptionData[i].classes || '')
@@ -292,7 +305,7 @@ $.widget("ui.selectmenu", {
 						$(this).addClass(activeClass);
 					}
 					$(this).removeClass(self.widgetBaseClass + '-item-focus ui-state-hover');
-				});
+				}).append(thisA);
 
 			// optgroup or not...
 			if ( selectOptionData[i].parentOptGroup.length ) {