Downloading from Google Docs

[Linux for blind general discussion]

Okay, so someone shared a google doc with me, and I spent like half an
hour trying to download the file and accomplished nothing but giving
myself a headache.

Google Docs is an inaccessible hunk of junk I'd like to hear scoured
from the face of the Earth, but since the abomination isn't likely to
be going anywhere anytime soon, and it's probably going to only get
more common place for people to send me documents via Google Docs than
as a sensible e-mail attachment, I'd like to ask my fellow blind Linux
Users if they've found anything that makes it easier to go from being
sent a link to a Google Doc to opening a file in your text editor of
choice and having your screen reader of choice read it?

If it matters, I'm using Firefox and I've tried downloading both with
Javascript enabled and disabled.