What can I do with an old tablet where the digitizer appears to have failed completely?

[esiemens]

My kids brought me their 7" acer tablet they got for Christmas a year ago saying it wasn't working. Sure enough, no touch response, otherwise seems to be good. I haven't been able to scrounge up a USB OTG cable yet to try a 'mouse', if that would work or not, but am wondering if any of you have had any experience with this. Would love to be able to permanently mount it somewhere displaying just the weather and news, or perhaps monitoring the cameras in my home, but without some kind of interface, my options appear limited. Any remote control apps I could download to it that you are aware of? Thanks