Alt+V image paste broken on Windows (regression — accessibility impact for eye-gaze-only users)

Summary

The default chat:imagePaste shortcut (Alt+V) stopped working on Windows
after a recent Claude Code update. Pressing Alt+V with an image on the
clipboard does nothing — no error, no paste, no visible feedback.

Environment

• OS: Windows 11
• Claude Code: latest (auto-updated)
• Terminal: Windows Terminal + PowerShell
• Input method: eye-gaze tracking only

Reproduction

1. Copy an image to the Windows clipboard (Win+Shift+S snip, or right-click

any image → Copy)

1. Focus the Claude Code chat input
2. Press Alt+V

Expected: image attached to the message.
Actual: nothing happens — no attachment, no error, no visual feedback.

Diagnostics already done

• /doctor reports no keybinding configuration issues.
• ~/.claude/keybindings.json does not exist — defaults are in use.
• Confirmed via reference that Alt+V is the documented default for

chat:imagePaste in the current Claude Code version.

• Confirmed real image data is on the Windows clipboard (Paint paste works;

an AutoHotkey hotkey on the same Alt+V successfully reads the clipboard
image via [System.Windows.Forms.Clipboard]::GetImage()).

• Tested with several plugins installed and after /reload-plugins.

Behaviour unchanged.

• Drag-and-drop from Windows Explorer works as a workaround.
• Used to work consistently for a long time before a recent Claude Code

update.

Accessibility impact

I am an ALS patient, locked-in, eye-gaze-only. Keystrokes are my entire
input channel. Drag-and-drop from File Explorer is technically possible
with eye-gaze but slow, fatiguing, and imprecise compared to a keyboard
shortcut. The current workaround I am using is an AutoHotkey script that
intercepts Alt+V, saves the clipboard image to a known file path via
PowerShell, and types the path into the input. That works — which
confirms (a) the OS clipboard does contain image data, and (b) a separate
process can read it via the standard Windows clipboard API. The bug is
in Claude Code's clipboard-read or Alt+V handling on Windows.

Please prioritise — losing a default keyboard shortcut for image input
is an accessibility regression for keyboard-only users, not a minor
inconvenience.

Likely cause

Either a recent Claude Code update changed how the Windows clipboard
is read for image data, or it changed how the Alt modifier is captured
in the terminal input layer on Windows. I have not changed any
configuration on my side.