diff --git a/Modules/_cursesmodule.c b/Modules/_cursesmodule.c
index ef0a66c..191d53f 100644
--- a/Modules/_cursesmodule.c
+++ b/Modules/_cursesmodule.c
@@ -203,8 +203,11 @@
     } else if(PyBytes_Check(obj)
               && (PyBytes_Size(obj) == 1)) {
         *ch = (chtype) *PyBytes_AsString(obj);
-    } else if (PyUnicode_Check(obj) && PyUnicode_GetSize(obj) == 1) {
-        *ch = (chtype) *PyUnicode_AS_UNICODE(obj);
+    } else if (PyUnicode_Check(obj) && PyUnicode_GET_LENGTH(obj) == 1) {
+        Py_UCS4 ucs = PyUnicode_READ(PyUnicode_KIND(obj),
+                                     PyUnicode_DATA(obj),
+                                     0);
+        *ch = (chtype)ucs;
     } else {
         return 0;
     }