Teaching people to do things on computers [on hold]

I'm trying to write some instructions for some older people to do a process on a computer.

It seems it is not possible. The people are completely and utterley computer illiterate, yet they somehow manage to do basic tasks such as emails and web browsing (although I've been trying to teach them the concept of 'tabs' in their browser for the past year, which hasn't been successful at all).

When I'm writing the instructions, I'm literally one step away from telling them which pixel to click. Any higher-level instructions would be completely lost on them, yet when I give them spoon-feed micro-step instructions, they can't even follow them. They'll ask what they need to click next, when following the instructions exactly would have avoided the question.

I am a programmer, and programming is like telling the dumbest things (computers) what to do. Why is it that trying to 'program' a human using English is far, far, far more difficult? I actually ended up automating one of these processes by writing a program, rather then attempting to get one of these people to do it. It was far easier. Sadly it's not possible in all cases.

What is the problem here? Is it me - have I got the wrong approach altogether? Is it just that these people are in the wrong job?

Note: most people are fine, we are talking about some older people here, who have been 'using' computers for 1-2 years and never seem to understand anything related to them.

Note 2: This is in the workplace. It's obvious that the people are far too I.T. incompetent for the job, but I can't change that.