diff --git a/stdlib/public/core/String.swift b/stdlib/public/core/String.swift
index ad5b03eafd0..8e1d82a0cbb 100644
--- a/stdlib/public/core/String.swift
+++ b/stdlib/public/core/String.swift
@@ -1248,6 +1248,11 @@ extension String : LosslessStringConvertible {
 }
 
 extension String {
+  public // @testable
+  var _nfcCodeUnits: [UInt8] {
+    return _slicedGuts.withNFCCodeUnitsIterator { Array($0) }
+  }
+  
   public // @testable
   func _withNFCCodeUnits(_ f: (UInt8) throws -> Void) rethrows {
     try _gutsSlice.withNFCCodeUnitsIterator_2 {
diff --git a/validation-test/stdlib/StringNormalization.swift b/validation-test/stdlib/StringNormalization.swift
index 76451ad1def..11bf8f68af8 100644
--- a/validation-test/stdlib/StringNormalization.swift
+++ b/validation-test/stdlib/StringNormalization.swift
@@ -18,16 +18,12 @@ import StdlibUnittest
 import StdlibUnicodeUnittest
 
 private func expectEqualIterators(expected: [UInt8], others: [[UInt8]]) {
-  expected.withUnsafeBufferPointer { expectedBuffer in
-    for other in others {
-      other.withUnsafeBufferPointer { otherBuffer in
-        let expectedIterator = 
-          _NormalizedUTF8CodeUnitIterator(expectedBuffer, range: 0..<expectedBuffer.count)
-        let otherIterator = 
-          _NormalizedUTF8CodeUnitIterator(otherBuffer, range: 0..<otherBuffer.count)
-        expectEqual(Array(expectedIterator), Array(otherIterator))
-      }
-    }
+  let expectedString = String(decoding: expected, as: UTF8.self)
+  let expectedCodeUnits = expectedString._nfcCodeUnits
+  
+  for other in others {
+    let otherString = String(decoding: other, as: UTF8.self)
+    expectEqual(expectedCodeUnits, otherString._nfcCodeUnits)
   }
 }