Solved! Tablet for Elderly

[StuWar]

Hi,

Please help me.

My grandparents are both 87. My grandmother suffers from dementia and my grandfather acts as her carer.

When I visit, I connect my laptop to their TV and play YouTube videos of things that make them happy.

I'd love to set something up for when I'm not there in person.

My idea was to get a tablet. The homescreen would have nothing on it other than one or two giant icons for them to tap, such as the YouTube app.

Is it possible to have videos, a playlist, automatically play from launch? My grandfather wouldn't know how to type or search for videos. If there was a channel or playlist that I could add videos to at my end, is there any way that they could automatically play on a tablet for my grandparents?

I apologise if I'm asking a stupid question or have posted something in the wrong place. I just want to try and do something for my grandparents.

Please help me if you can.

 

[webworkings]

To be honest, I have not heard of any such options on a tablet nor for the auto play.

While you could take most any tablet (most) and remove all the icons from the home screen then add only what you want, I am not sure how 'big' you would be able to make said icons though.

It might well be easier to make either a dvd with a lot of videos on it, or a table with them already put on it (no you tube for them to connect to) and then let them play it that way on the TV. Some newer TVs will also allow for a USB drive to be connected, so you could well place a lot of videos on one of those and then connect it to the TV.

Just alternate idea suggestions.

 

[hang-the-9]

If you want this to run on the TV, I suggest a Firestick along with an Amazon account or a basic Android compute stick with some apps loaded.
Firestick has a pretty good audio controller so you don't need to worry about typing if that is an issue.
Something like an Amazon Echo or Google Home device that listens for speech may be good, but you would need to get things configured to run things on the TV.

Android can be customized pretty well, things like a "kid mode" can make it so only select apps are available.

 

[StuWar]

First of all, thank you both for taking the time to read my request and reply.

I appreciate the comments about voice control but I know that would just confuse them even further. Such things make life easier for many, I get it. However, my grandfather is 87. The idea of talking to a machine would just be totally alien to him. He'd be scared to use it because it would, understandably, sound far too complicated and technologically advanced, even though we know it's as simple as saying "Play music".

It needs to be something that is simple for him to use but also appears simple to him, something that won't seem like it has come from the future. He lives in a wee village in the Highlands of Scotland. For most of his life, he either didn't have a television or, when he did, it had three channels and his remote control only had a couple of buttons.

My idea (and maybe it's rubbish or unfeasible) for connecting a tablet to a TV is that the tablet could appear to him similar to a remote control. He would understand that pressing the 'YouTube' button (or whatever alternative) would lead to videos that he likes appearing on his TV screen, even if he doesn't fully understand how and why. It needs to be as straightforward as that.

The reason I thought of YouTube is that I don't live nearby. I figured that I could create a playlist that they could access but I could, on a semi-regular basis, update it for them because, again, they wouldn't know how to do it themselves. They'd simply press the button and think that just means videos appear on their TV; I would know that I've curated videos that they'd enjoy.

I realise that this may simply not be possible.

It might well be easier to make [...] a table with them already put on it (no you tube for them to connect to) and then let them play it that way on the TV.

Please excuse my ignorance but what do you mean by a table?

Again, thank you both for replying and if anyone can offer alternative suggestions or advice, I'd be incredibly grateful to you.

 

[webworkings]

Apologies. That was a typo. Should have said tablet (table = forgot the t).

I do understand the need for simplicity. I have some older people I have dealt with that in regards to things like phones.

Adding to my suggestion of a USB, with something like that, you would just place what you want on it and they can use their normal remote for the TV to access the data. You can put a lot of music, videos, etc., on a decent USB drive.

Now to make changes remotely you can't do with that, but perhaps it would be possible with the Firestick mentioned by hang-the-9 or even perhaps a Roku.