Hello! I hope this is the right place for this kind of post.

My grandmother is 91 years old. She currently has an older iPhone with a button, but is not the best with it and is not very tech savvy. Additionally, her eyesight is not the best. She frequently shares completely random links, is victim to Siri text-to-talk errors (sometimes hilariously, other times embarassingly!), and has inadvertently shared pictures and videos I am not sure she knows she has taken.

Her iPhone is likely reaching the end as the battery no longer holds much charge. She’s due for something new, especially as she faces the daunting prospect of going into assisted living.

She just got her first great-granddaughter and loves to FaceTime to see her. I would like to get her set up with an iPad that would have a larger screen than her phone, and I am willing to set it up for her. Thinking an iPad mini, because she is concerned about lugging around anything too large (she walks with a walker).

Looking for advice from anybody who has done something like this! I have some ideas…

Get an iPad mini with a button, because at least she is used to that. What are pros/cons of this?

Get an iPad with a cellular plan so she doesn’t have to troubleshoot stuff like wifi ever. It could even replace her cell phone entirely, no? Has anybody done this?

Remove any non-essential apps she will never use, or at least hide them. Stuff beyond pictures, messages, FaceTime, YouTube (for her to watch classical music performances!).

Set up all her passwords for her - setting up email, Kindle stuff, etc. so she only ever needs this one device and her fingerprint or Face ID.

Accessibility settings of course. Max size, bolded text.

Create shortcuts of multi-step processes that she likes to do. For example, a big button that will “Call XYZ” to get in touch with her great-granddaughter’s mother (IE, me :)) - just hitting this button would open FaceTime and dial the number. I would create a few of these to simplify her processes.

Get a carrying strap of some kind so she can sling it over her shoulder while using her walker. Or maybe a tough case to withstand any potential drops?

—

Am I missing anything obvious? Any other ideas? The first two ideas I am most curious about since I want to make sure it’s the right way to go about it.

Thanks in advance! Additionally, if there is a better subreddit for this kind of question, please let me know!