How is jquery used to check for the 'disabled' attribute on an <a> tag?

The new and improved way is to use jQuery's prop() function: http://api.jquery.com/prop/#prop1

$('#anchorID').prop("disabled");

The difference between attributes and properties can be important in specific situations. Before jQuery 1.6, the .attr() method sometimes took property values into account when retrieving some attributes, which could cause inconsistent behavior. As of jQuery 1.6, the .prop() method provides a way to explicitly retrieve property values, while .attr() retrieves attributes.

Try:

$('#anchorID').prop("disabled");

See:

http://api.jquery.com/prop/#prop1

Updated: +1 to Ayman Safadi's answer.

Try

$('#anchorID').is('[disabled=disabled]')

Will return true if disabled="disabled" is an attribute for the element.