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Results of a test for differential performance applied to data for universal and non‐universal banks revealed that the performance of universal banks was not superior to that of the non‐universal banks. The study, therefore, does not support the performance theory as a basis for the global trend towards universal banking. Rather, there is implied support for the theory that loss of comparative advantage by commercial banks in the credit market and an increasingly competitive global market for financial services are both pushing major countries to adopt the universal model. Specific attention was given to the NAFTA countries bordering the USA. A test for convergence revealed that relatively new universal banks in those countries were converging towards the performance levels of other established universal systems; the project impact on the non‐universal US banking system in the 1990s is of serious concern.

The purpose of this paper is to introduce to the concepts related with universal service and the papers in the special issue about “Re‐thinking universal service in the digital era”.

This special issue aims to provide support to the policy process with regard to universal service in a digital context. The papers in the issue highlight developments that are shaking up the current universal service model. They consider universal service from a set of different dimensions, encompassing both demand and supply side considerations. Also a comparative outlook draws lessons from a representative set of existing regulatory models.

The paper finds that the foundations and concept of universal service are experiencing a profound transformation as we enter into a new phase of information society development. A new set of policy goals and tools is the main consequence of this change.

The paper presents a timely account of the universal service policy debate.

This paper aims to give conclusions from the papers in the special issue about “Re‐thinking universal service in the digital era”.

A summary of the themes, trends and new concepts about universal service is compiled from the varied viewpoints introduced in the issue. The editors also appraise the mobile and broadband universal service candidates under the different perspectives in the issue, point out a number of questionable assumptions and gaps in the universal service stories, and touch on the international currents of influence in universal service policy. Finally, a succinct vision of a universal service policy for Europe is outlined.

This special issue aims to provide support to the policy process with regard to universal service in a digital context. The papers in the issue highlight developments that are shaking up the current universal service model. They consider universal service from a set of different dimensions, encompassing both demand and supply side considerations. Also a comparative outlook draws lessons from a representative set of existing regulatory models.

The paper provides a summary of the main avenues for the upcoming universal service policy debate.

In order to mark the beginning of the fifteenth century, a group of prominent Muslim theologians and jurists assembled to draft a document that systematically laid out the rights and duties of all human beings according to the dictates of Islam. The year of Christ was 1981, and the occasion was formally the International Islamic Conference, held that year in Paris. The document that these jurist produced seems at first an odd one, titled The Universal Islamic Declaration of Human Rights (Universal Islamic Declaration, 1988). Odd as the document so pointedly invokes the famed 1948 United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Universal Declaration, 1999). But perhaps such an invocation is not odd at all, for the document is first of all a symptom of and a response to two massive contemporary facts. The first is the ubiquity of human rights talk. It is certainly proof of the success of this discourse as a normative and normalizing force that no-one can speak of universality or ethics or even the most drab topic in international relations without paying homage, only sometimes qualified, to the idea that all humans have rights. The second fact to which the Islamic declaration responds is the suspicion if not outright insistence that the religion of Islam in unsuited to this new order of civilization. Amongst the jurists themselves there is a sense that clarification is needed of the relation of Islam to the global (to say nothing of globalizing) discourse of human rights. This much is readily conceded by the drafters, who felt impelled by the forces of the contemporary world scene to formulate the Islamic position in relation to human rights (Weeramantry, 1988, p. 122).Not surprisingly, such a position involves dethroning the sovereign subject (entirely different from its deconstruction) and proclaiming victory once again for God and his absolute sovereignty, even as it involves extending a governmental interest in the life of the individual, from the conditions of his cultural life (article 14) to the legislation of his leisure time (article17). However, in contrast to the Universal Declaration that never once mentions God or Creator, the Islamic Declaration insists that only God to be “the creator the sustainer, the sovereign the sole guide of mankind and the Source of all Law” (Universal Islamic Declaration, 1988, p. 176). A hasty reading would take this as a response not just to the Universal Declaration, which here is named and renamed, but the entire western tradition of rights and secular power after the death of God. This, however, would be a mistake, for it would overlook both the distinctly modern project of power that the Islamic Declaration articulates, and the peculiar construction of the U.N Declaration itself, the way it refers to and refracts the idiom of the famous eighteenth century revolutionary documents – the American Declaration of Independence and the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen. Thus in the Universal Declaration the repetition of the American phrase, “endowed by their creator,” becomes simply “endowed with reason and conscience,” with no one doing the endowing. In short, the omission of God from the Universal Declaration is an over determined decision and not one of a casual or inevitable secularism.

It is the general purpose of this chapter to introduce assumptions, postulates and hypotheses concerning the social nature of human emotions. I will propose some universal social causes of emotion categories by integrating Kemper’s (1978) power and status dimensions in dyadic relations to universal structures of human groups. These structures, of Self and Other meeting or not meeting expectations and receiving rewards or not, predict specific emotion categories. Power and status dimensions are added to the model and defined in terms of expectation/sanction (E/S) states, and are proposed to be universal as well. Furthermore, changing E/S conditions produce corresponding changes in power/status relations, and changes in emotion categories. These changing social structural conditions cause individual anxieties to emerge. Extending Kemper’s theoretical conceptualizations, gaining or losing power-advantage or status-advantage predicts syndromes of universal anxiety emotions.

This chapter discusses a bottom-up design strategy to support the principles of Universal Design and Universal Design for Learning adapted for online course development. The concept of Universal Design demands a holistic, bottom-up instructional design model for online course development that integrates technology, accessibility, recent instructional and learning theories, and a participatory postmodern worldview. This study is intended for faculty, instructional designers, administrators, assistive technology staff, and Web multimedia software vendors associated with higher education. The research assists these target audiences to design and develop online courses that are accessible without special adaptation or modification. The components of Universal Design for online learning support newer emergent approaches to instructional design, various programming solutions used in the software engineering field for efficiency, Universal Design for Learning, and legal guidelines associated with accessibility.

On a world basis, 15% of the population has a disability. Having a disability can result in a higher frequency of health-related information needs than other users might experience. The Web represents a widely used source for health information. People with disabilities, however, often encounter barriers during online searching, such as inaccessible information, poorly designed search user interfaces and lack of compatibility with assistive technology. Consequently, many users are potentially excluded from a range of information sources. Measures are therefore needed to remove these barriers to avoid health disparities that can result from unequal access to information. Public libraries have a social responsibility to include all user groups, and should aspire to make fully accessible services. A good tool in this context is the implementation of the universal design mind-set, where the purpose is to develop services that are available to all people. This chapter discusses how universal design can be a premise for equal access to health information and potentially reduce health disparities in the context of users with disabilities. Both library services and education of librarians will be addressed.

The purpose of the paper is to provide a comprehensive overview of the refurbishment of heritage buildings with special emphasis on sustainability and universal design. Findings of the study are the basis for further research and development of enhanced strategies for retrofitting and adaptive reuse of heritage buildings in the framework of sustainability and universal design.

The present research focusses on literature review analysis of specific elements of the refurbishment of heritage buildings with the aim to discover the characteristics/indicators of sustainability and universal design, which are usually used in refurbishment project and the gaps. In this paper, the latest state-of-art in the mentioned fields has been assessed, and the developments along with research gaps and potential future research focusses have been identified. The literature was collected mainly through Science Direct, World Wide Science and Emerald, especially focussed on publications from 2000 to 2019 written in English and the Web for regulatory and recommendation publications. Other sources, such as actual projects, might shed additional light on the specific issues of the studied topics.

This review shows that the current research related to heritage building renovation and reuse does not address sustainability and universal design issues comprehensively. Typically, in research, the topics of heritage, sustainability and inclusiveness are considered separately. In real situations, however, they are interconnected and influence each other, forming an indivisible whole. The needs of persons with disabilities (PWD) in correlation to the built heritage are not well studied. This is why it is important to consider these topics not only separately but also in an interrelated way.

The need for cross-disciplinary problem-solving method, based on a holistic approach, to form the base for implementation of universal design principles into refurbishing of heritage buildings is seen.

This paper demonstrates the need for usable procedures for various stakeholders in their everyday practice.

The combined subjects of sustainability, heritage buildings and universal design are not well covered by research. Lack of appropriate literature for this specific area is forming a significant gap that hinders the development of relevant information and methods that could be applied in actual projects. This paper, albeit in a partial way, intends to fill this gap and opts to provide a comprehensive summary of the sustainability factors affecting adaptive reuse of heritage buildings with special emphasis on users, specifically PWD.