Not sure if the acronym MDS is generally accepted. Do you refer to Meta Data Server?
If those users should have RO on all metadata even in other tools, then you should be able to use metadata right/authorization to control this.
You can also play with the different roles/capabilities that are defined for SMC (SAS Management Console).
But since SMC is a client that needs a local installation, and is rather technical, I doubt that every new user can benefit from using it, without proper education. Perhaps you could extract the most interesting things and put in a PPT?
Things like folders and data are usually available through any other SAS client.
Another option is to look at Environment Manager. A truly thin client, and will over time replace SMC.
Data never sleeps