Rachel Hurst is an activist and former director of Disability Awareness in Action (DAA), an international network working on disability and human rights.

After a career in teaching, she became a wheelchair-user in 1976. Wanting to socialise with other disabled people, she approached the Greenwich Association for Disabled People. She later became a trustee and chaired the organisation from 1983 to 1990, remodelling it to become the Greenwich Association of Disabled People and Centre for Independent Living (GADCIL), run by and for disabled people. GADCIL took over the local Dial-a-Ride service and were the driving force behind Forum@Greenwich, a community initiative for full accessibility and equality of opportunity. GADCIL was a member organisation of the British Council of Disabled People (BCODP). Rachel was an officer of BCODP between 1983 and 1998, and its chair from 1985 to 1987. Hurst also joined the Impact Foundation UK, an international initiative against avoidable disability. Along with others, she created an organisation to support the United Nations Decade of Disabled People, known as the Global Project in support of Disabled People, with Hurst as the Project Director. In 1992 Hurst persuaded Nicholas Scott, then Minister for Disabled People, to support the organisation; it was renamed Disability Awareness in Action (DAA).

DAA was an international information network on disability and human rights, promoting local action globally in support of the rights of disabled people. DAA published monthly newsletters with international stories and experiences from disabled people in three languages, large print and braille. They also published also a series of Resource Kits with distinctive blue covers, to help new organisations set up and start to campaign for disabled people in their locality. Hurst was the Director of DAA from its creation in 1992 until her retirement in 2011. She was also actively involved in the Disabled People’s international (DPI), being on the World Council between 1987 and 2003. She also served as the Chair of the DPI European Union Committee (1992–1995) and of the DPI European Region (1995–1999).

She frequently spoke on TV and radio on disability issues and was heavily involved in the lobbying and campaigning related to Disabled people’s civil rights that led to the Disability Discrimination Act of 1995.