You can suffer an injury that leads to a disability in many different ways. Maybe you were injured by a defective product you bought online, or perhaps you got involved in a car accident. Disabilities also happen due to medical issues, like a heart attack, a stroke or a traumatic brain injury. Everyone who is living with a disability has a unique story to tell, and there are millions of individuals in the United States alone.
Would it surprise you, however, to learn that many disabling conditions start at work? Some studies have attributed more than one-third of disabilities to job-related injuries and accidents. This certainly makes it one of the more common places for disabilities to occur.
Why are workplace events so often inclined to lead to disabilities?
There are a few potential reasons. One is that workers face risks on the job that they don’t face anywhere else. A good example is a painter who climbs 30-foot ladders to paint houses every day. A fall could easily result in disability, and all of his or her fall risks are at work.
Another issue is just the time that people put in. If you spend eight hours a day at work, that’s one-third of your time. That’s close to the exact percentage of disabilities that happen at work. What this shows is that disabilities are a constant risk, and a life-changing event can happen at almost any moment.
What can you do if you are disabled due to a work-related injury or illness?
With or without workers’ compensation benefits, you owe it to yourself to look into every available resource you have for benefits — including Social Security Disability. Take the time to look into the legal steps needed to pursue them.