(FORTUNE Magazine) – Picking up where we left off last time (June 21) with astute comments from readers, let's start with an irksome irony: According to many of you human resources managers and consultants out there, corporations would hire more disabled people (May 3) if it were not for the federal Americans with Disabilities Act--which, while it was intended to help the physically challenged get access to jobs, has apparently created more work for lawyers than for anyone else. Notes James Blackstock, an attorney in Brentwood, Tenn.: "An inescapable concern of hiring managers is that a disabled person will be so protected under the ADA that even if the worker is not suited to the job or is not productive, there will be no efficient way to terminate him or her.... If companies were permitted to try out employees at jobs without fear that a reasonable business decision based on performance would be subject to second-guessing in court, there would be many more opportunities available."

Perhaps--but repealing the ADA might help only if attitudes changed too. Thanks to Linda Myers at Cornell University for sending a recent study by Cornell researchers who surveyed 1,400 U.S. employers and found that "companies' health, life, and disability insurance costs rarely rise because of hiring employees with disabilities" but that "negative stereotypes about people with disabilities are pervasive in the workplace, causing them to be hired less and fired more" than other employees. The report also says that most U.S. companies--71%--now have arbitration or mediation processes in place for resolving wrongful-dismissal claims before they become full-blown lawsuits. (For more details of the study, see www.ilr.cornell.edu/ped.)

Is it really impossible to get an investment banking job at a major Wall Street firm if you didn't get your MBA from an Ivy League school (May 10)? Almost--but not quite. Several managers at investment banks wrote to point out that Wall Street houses sometimes do a bit of hiring from 14 so-called second-tier schools that have banded together in an organization called the National MBA Consortium (www.national mba.org/schools.htm) "But be realistic about how intensely competitive this is," says a recruiter at Credit Suisse First Boston. "You may have to put in a few years doing a stellar job at an accounting or consulting firm, and then make a lateral move to Wall Street from there." Commercial banking experience may help too: First Boston's chairman and CEO, Allen Wheat, initially came from Chemical Bank.

In response to the questions that pop up periodically in this space on how up-and-coming female managers can find mentors, a reader named Lillie suggested checking out the International Women's Forum's Leadership Foundation (e-mail: LeaderFdn@aol.com). A nonprofit group based in Washington, D.C., the IWFLF offers intensive leadership training and coaching from big names like Jill Barad, CEO of Mattel; Cathy Minehan, head of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston; and Micheline Bouchard, chairman and CEO of Motorola Canada.

Speaking of women, comments are still trickling in from around the globe on a nine-month-old column (Sept. 28) about female executives' new ascendancy overseas. Writes a banker named Cindy, working in Kyoto, Japan: "The experts you cited were right on. Girlfriends, come on over!" Seems likely to happen: A recent survey of human resources honchos at global companies, by relocation consultants Runzheimer International, notes that 70% expect to send more women abroad in the next five years.

Thanks to all who sent suggestions for "curing" people who habitually show up late for meetings (June 7). Says a reader named Marcus: "Arrange the seating so that someone coming in late has to squeeze past everyone else. Whoever is talking should stop until the person sits down, then continue without recapping. I've seen people so flustered by this that they started arriving ten minutes early." An even more Machiavellian idea comes from Toronto executive coach Ian Gillies: "Put issues critical to latecomers first on the agenda. Make the latecomer responsible for a certain task. Then don't mention it again until after the deadline has passed. When he or she complains, just calmly say, 'Well, it was decided at the meeting.' Refrain from smirking." If you can.