One of the things I want people to consider in the context of that little girl with cerebral palsy climbing the stairs and other videos like it is that disabled people are much more likely to experience abuse than the general population

whether that video or any other individual video includes abusive elements behind the scenes (coercion, being taught to see unrealistic/unmaintanble goals as accomplishments, etc.) or not is beside the point

as a genre they normalize the outside world superimposing their expectations and interpretations onto situations they don't really understand and which for far too many people abuse or at the least a childish lack of understanding of the media consequences are present

Yes, the disabled children are usually smiling but do you really know why? Even if they are smiling for the expected reasons, are they fully aware of what the longterm outcomes of their moment of triumph are?

They may be smiling because they made their parents happy but do their parents have reasonable expectations?

Chasingimpossible expectations usually doesn't show the wear and tear early on

Kids don't necessarily know when they've been pushed to far

even if they object, parents can treat that as laziness.

So even in a situation were coercion was used, the child may still express happiness at meeting the expectation

Smiles are not consent or a universally truthful measure that everything is ok

That is why these videos do harm

because no matter what the truth is

the viewer isn't actually reacting to the true story