Odds that you can teach them the basics of SQL and Emacs? Pretty high. At the level needed here, it's just UI like any other. Journalists are routinely taught SQL as a part of their studies, and secretaries and writers are known to use Emacs.
As for your points for tech projects, I really dislike the emphasis on (3). It sounds reasonable from business perspective, but business is always hoping for candidates who already know everything they need to be 100% productive from day one. It's an impossibility, and structuring your workshop around such requirements only drags your project down - because instead of using the right tool for the job, you end up using the lowest common denominator tool.
It's kind of like refusing to use excavators, because not everyone knows how to operate them, but everyone knows how to use a shovel and shovel wielders are cheaper.
> Odds that you can teach them the basics of SQL and Emacs? Pretty high.
Have you ever tried to teach a regular person how to use Excel? The above reads like satire if I'm honest. Even teaching someone how to use Emacs alone would be seriously pushing it.
That said, in context of work, it's even simpler. A few tasks, a program. You teach people by example. Type this here, type this there, do this, do that, you're done. Nothing hard.
Think of it this way: almost every company that uses computers has some custom assortment of SMB tools and SaaS websites specific to the job at hand. It's normal that people learn this, and they have zero problems with it. Hell, typical ecommerce management panels I see people working in have UX an order of magnitude worse than Emacs.