Although I'm the implementer of the patch (the concept
was discussed way back on c.l.py after a naive poster's
original request) I'm probably +0 myself. It's an attempt
to replace os.access' next-to-useless behaviour on Windows
with something which at least uses current security mechanisms
to determine its answer.

However, it's just one function among the many Posixesque
functions which don't quite map to Windows. And one which
you might well be advised to avoid in any case since there's
an race condition inherent in checking for a file's accessibility
and then making use of that fact.  Better to try and fall back.