tabindex is your friend. as is focus().

but yes. most designer / developers don't get that far in the process. they either want the page to look pretty but couldn't care less about functionality, or care only about functionality and the page looks like ass and doesn't really work that well anyway.

(personally i cringe more at the people who mouse > select > menu:edit > menu:copy > menu:edit > menu:paste instead of just mouse > select > ctrl-c > ctrl-v)