I have an .mdb file with some sample data in a table named [vocabulary]. When I launch Access and open the table in Datasheet View it looks like this:
ID word language english_equiv
-- -------- -------- -------------
5 żaglówka Polish sailboat
The following Python 2.7.5 code
# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
import pyodbc
db = pyodbc.connect(
r'DRIVER={Microsoft Access Driver (*.mdb, *.accdb)};' +
r'DBQ=C:\__tmp\unicodeMdbTest.mdb')
cursor1 = db.execute('SELECT [word] FROM [vocabulary] WHERE [ID]=5')
while 1:
row = cursor1.fetchone()
if not row:
break
print row.word
db.close()
successfully prints the following in the IDLE shell
żaglówka
Note the file encoding declaration on the first line of the .py file.