TODAY is International Guide Dog Day, celebrating the important role guide dogs play in enabling people who are blind or vision impaired to be safe and independent.

To honour the partnership, Guide Dogs Australia is addressing the ongoing issue of discrimination against people with guide dogs, so they can more freely access their communities.

Frank Taylor lives in Warwick and has a guide dog to aid him in his everyday life.

He went blind in 1967 due to retina pigmentosa, an inherited degenerative disease affecting the eyes's perceptive cells.

"In 1992 I got my first guide dog named Kansas," Mr Taylor said.

"He was one of the first trained in Queensland. I'm now on my fourth dog, and all of them have come from Queensland."

Mr Taylor has had a guide dog ever since they have been trained in Queensland.

Since receiving his first guide dog he said there had been a big number of dogs trained as guide dogs in Queensland.

He has had his current dog, Shiraz, since December 2013, and she is dog number 866 to be trained in the state.

"Without the guide dog I wouldn't be able to do what I'm doing," Mr Taylor said.

"In Queensland, it's mainly about helping vision impaired people with guide dogs and making people aware they're available here in Queensland."

A recent study conducted by EY Sweeney Research revealed that, of 530 Australian guide dog users, 56% had face discrimination due to their vision impairment or guide dog in the previous 12 months.

Guide dogs are trained to accompany vision-impaired people wherever they need to go each day, however the study also reported a third of national participants had been denied access or questioned when trying to enter a cafe or restaurant, and when using a taxi.

The findings come despite guide dogs being legally allowed to accompany owners into public areas of all venues and forms of public transport under Australian federal law.

Mr Taylor fortunately has not faced discrimination because of his guide dog and has found the service very helpful. "If you have any problems, you can call them up and they get it sorted out straight away."