returns a string with accent to REGEX expression to find any combinations in accent insentive way

string_util.py

#!/usr/bin/env python
# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-

# import re
from unicodedata import normalize

DIACRITICS_REPLACEMENTS = {
    'a': 'àáâãäåæåāa',
    'e': 'èéêëẽėęe',
    'i': 'ìíîïĩīįi',
    'o': 'ðòóôõöøœōo',
    'u': 'ùúûüµūu',
    'c': 'çćčc',
    'n': 'ñńn',
    's': 'ßšśs',
    'y': 'ýÿ¥y',
    'z': 'žźżz'
}


def insensitive_case(string):
    """
    Case and accent insensitive searchs
    """

    regex = ''

    string = normalize('NFKD', unicode(string)).encode('ascii', 'ignore')

    string = string.lower()

    for char in string:
        for key, value in DIACRITICS_REPLACEMENTS.items():
            if char in value:
                regex += '[{}]'.format(value)
                break
        else:
            if char in DIACRITICS_REPLACEMENTS:
                regex += '[{}]'.format(DIACRITICS_REPLACEMENTS[char])
            else:
                regex += char

    # result = re.compile(regex, re.IGNORECASE)
    return regex