An ARIA solution

 

(required)

 

Example Code

<label for="first_name">First Name</label>
<input name="first_name" id="first_name" aria-required="true" size="25" maxlength="25" /> (required)

 

New screen readers (JAWS 10 and NVDA) with new browsers (FF 3 and IE 8) will now indicate the required status of the form element (and that's all).