A short snippet to simulate read-only attribute on a select list, which is currently not W3C-compliant. We can not just disable it, as a disabled input is not sent when submitting a form. The trick here is to store the disabled select value into a hidden field.

read-only-on-select-list.js

/**
 * Simulate the read-only attribute on a select list (as it is not normalized).
 * @see http://www.w3.org/wiki/HTML/Elements/select
 * @param Object Select list element
 **/
function setReadOnlyOnSelect(selectList)
{
    // Ensure selectList exists
    if(!selectList.length) {
        console.warn("Unable to find specified select list.");
        return;
    }
 
    // Create a hidden input to store select value
    var input = $('<input />', {
        type: "hidden",
        name: selectList.attr("name"),
        value: selectList.val()
    });
 
    // Disable the select
    selectList.attr("disabled", true).before(input);
}