Can we collect? We've sure contributed!?

My husband pays a certain amount out of his check each week toward disability. He tore his ACL as a kid and had knee surgery in high school. He needs another surgery within a year or so. Will he be able to collect from the money he's been contributing for the past 14 years toward disability considering he's going to need to take quite a bit of time off of work after the surgery? Not sure how it works.