If you do go this route, I have some advice based on trying this with my grandmother:

1. Print out some sort of help. I tried giving her a DVD with all the videos off Apple.com, and I'm pretty certain she has never looked at it.

2. Make sure the help includes information about what icons do. With iOS at least, there are lots of buttons that simply have icons, with no text. Even though my grandmother has been using a Mac for a while, it seems she never made the association with the icons above the text and their actions. Even basic play/pause/fast forward icons were pretty new to her.

3. Try to buy the same device for yourself. Since there are no remote assistance options with tablets running iOS, Android, QNX, or WebOS, remote troubleshooting gets a little harder.

Since they have little computer experience now, the transition might be easier. I found with my grandmother, she was still trying to apply too many Mac usage patterns to the iPad. For example, she gets frustrated when she opens Safari and the same page she was last on comes right back. On her Mac, she has been in the habit of quitting programs when she is done, and expecting a clean slate when she returns. Nearly a year later, my grandmother is still using the laptop far more often then the iPad. Next time I visit in person, I'm going to attempt to help her transition more over, with a printed guide in hand.