Gotta say, it is very brave to show to severely lackluster examples as supposed “expert” guidance by Deque’s AI in the article. (Of course without image recognition, blind users have no way to determine this, as the alternative text of the sample images is bad, too.)
Modern browsers will announce the name of a focusable element that is aria-hidden. Using required in the accessible form can be problematic (and is not needed for screen readers as the example claims). (1/2)