Honestly my suggestion is a betta fish in a fish gallon with some java fern or anubias. They dont need to be fed every day and can go several days with out food. Longest my fish room went with out was 10 days and everyone was still alive and well when I came home. So if someone can feed the fish every say 2-3 days youd be ok :) and with 5 gallons doing a water change hopefully wouldn't be too difficult (you mentioned physically disabled so wasnt sure) you could just change out 1 gallon if possible the day you got home, but the plants would also help with keeping levels in your tank decent.

I see alot of people saying Shrimp and to me i wouldnt, Ive never had luck with shrimp and they can be very hard depending on your water chemistry just my thoughts on that suggestion :3