I have below code where i disable and enable a calendar clickable icon.
<p>      
   <label>
      <input type="text" name="date18" id="date18" value="01/01/2012"
      style="width:75px;" disabled/>
   </label>
   <a href="#" onclick="somecaledarrelatedstuff()" name="calid" id="calid">
      <img src="icon-Calendar.jpg" alt="Click to pick a date from a popup 
      calendar"/>
   </a>
</p>
When I add disable as above both the input field and the link to the calendar popup are disabled as well. But because the values of disabled elements are not submitted, I thought of making it read-only. However, the problem is that when it's read-only, only the input field is getting read only (not also the calendar pop up link) too, like using disable. 
I know if I want to disable (just to prevent the user from editing) both input field and href I can use disabled and have a hidden input variable, and submit it and refer to that variable. But I was looking for an alternative way because I will have a lot of refactoring to do to my code if I introduce a new hidden variable.
Thanks.