It's sort of possible to get to them from the front, but it's difficult and can end up scratching the panel. The easiest way is to just pop the lower dash panel loose and get to it that way.
-open the door
-grab the door sill and pull up to release
-pop the push anchor from the outer driver's kick panel
-grab the kick panel and pull towards the back of the car to release
-insert a screwdriver just above the hood release and put gentle pressure upwards against the panel while pulling the release mechanism back and down
-remove single phillips head screw from behind release
-grab left side of lower dash panel and pull towards you to release the clips holding it. You should be able to access the back of the switches without removing the rest of the panel.
-push the tabs above and below the blank you want to remove and slide it out the front of the panel.
